Transfer of Worlds
by Jazeoth 2.0
Summary: Kagero was raised as a boy by her father, and with brutal training and hard work he finally acknowledged her efforts. For her birthday, he decided to send her to her mother's world. The world of hunters! After entering the world—in quite an unorthodox way—she meets the starting trio of characters. Befriending Gon and the others, she sets off on the journey to find her mother.
1. Chapter 1

6:00am Japan, it was a crappy morning, foggy and rainy. Personally Kagero liked this type of weather better than sunny days because when the sun was out, it was harder to train due to the heat. She was tired, dead tired, having dark bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep. The previous night she stayed up too late reading. Reading, training and music were her only hobbies. She didn't want to go to bed until she finished her book, fully knowing that she would regret it the next morning. She didn't like it, but she always got up at the same time no matter how late she went to bed, her internal clock suck that way. After trudging out of bed she had her breakfast before she put on her training clothes and went outside for a run.

She wore a black short sleeved shirt with a low V neck, and wore bandages wrapping from her waist up and threw her arms and ended by her knuckles; the pants she wore had zippers along the sides and had those belt buckles that clipped on as a fashion statement, the belt being dark green and the pants being gray. The belt buckles were like the ones, those Vocaloid things her father loved so much. Her shoes were black and had neon blue stripe, she had gotten them as a present from her father the previous year. She put her hair up into a net and put her wig on. Her hair was dark turquoise with highlights in them, her wig was customized so it was like her hair but much shorter. Though her father told her that the net was the easy way out and it was more noticeable she did it anyways. She stayed up too late the night before reading and was grumpy and lazy. She didn't want to put in effort where it wasn't needed. They lived alone, why did she need to wear a wig.

Sighing, she ran through the woods until the fog started to lift. She looked to the sun for the time. Judging from where it was, it was around 11:00. When she got home she walked around, she couldn't find her father anywhere. She went to her father's bedroom, she sighed, he was still sleeping like a rock. She made lunch and got him up. It was rare for her father to sleep in even it was because he had an anime marathon. He had re-watched the particular anime so many times that she knew the plot well from how much she overheard. Once lunch was done, she went to wake her father up only to find him not in his room. She went back to the kitchen after looking in a few other rooms. Her dad was sitting at the table.

"Oh hey father, I was just going to wake you up."

"Well, the smell of food woke me up." He said stoically, but took a deep breath in, "it smells so good!"

She raised an eyebrow at him, the change in his mood evident, "You must be hungry then." Her dad nodded, it looked like he was going to drool any second now.

There was a long pause as they ate. When they finished, they said thanks for the food and got up to do their own thing. Kagero went to wash the dishes while her father left the room. He came back with a box that was wrapped up and had a ribbon.

"Happy Birthday Kagero. Here, take this," He handed her the box.

"Oh, it's my birthday?" She blinked, tilting her head. "Hmm, I guess I forgot."

"Who forgets their own birthday?" He said with a face that didn't suit his serious demeanor.

"I don't know, I've never really cared." She said as she unwrapped the box. In the box was a pure white sweater with neon blue lines on it. There was also a deep red scarf with bright red ends. She could tell it was high quality and would be able to go through tough training "Thanks dad. I've been needing new clothing, all my other clothes are in tatters." She gestured to her current shirt. It was torn by the shoulder and ripped where a branch caught her during training a week ago.

"There's also one more thing." He started, getting his daughter to look up at him, "I've never told you about your mother before. She said not to talk about her till you were older." Kagero's eyes widened as he spoke, "Though I will not be able to answer all of your questions." He said with a serious face that fell into a smile. "Those clothes used to be your mothers. They're special so treat them with care."

Her face was priceless, her dad never talked about her mother, and he usually just said that she was not of this world. "R-really? You're willing to talk about mother?" Her face went from a shocked one, to a happy one in a matter of seconds.

"Yes. But you still have to train today, even though it's your birthday, you know that right, Kagero." He pat her head.

"Yes, yes, I know." She waved it off lazily.

"I guess I could make an exception though. You can stop your training early today."

"Around what time should I come back or stop training per say?" She asked, she usually ended her training session after seven. Sometimes she would even spend the night out in the woods.

"Around five."

"Ok, I'll be off then!" Kagero ran out the house and into the woods.

 _Yes, I'll get to hear about mother!_ She thought to herself with a large grin as she ran through the deep woods that she was ever so used to.

She reached her usual spot in the woods and started training, with her own made up training regimen. She always ran for about an hour of two in the morning, then go back for breakfast. Then she would run back again, which would take about an hour, and train in combat and other things. Right now she was doing an exercise that would improve her jumping height tenfold; jumping through the trees. She would start off by jumping from the ground to a tree branch, then jumping back down to improve how she landed so she wouldn't put too much strain on her body, since she had that much extra weight on due to her training weights. After an hour of that she started running up the trees and wall jumped off of them to get a grasp of the timing and the weight distribution to jump up walls and other objects.

By the time lunch comes around, she hunts for some food, it would waste too much time to run all the way back to her house for lunch only to go back again. She ended up getting some fish. She incorporated a type of training into fishing, reaction time. She would stand in a stream and wait for the fish to come to her, as they passed she would swat them out of the water onto land.

After having her lunch, she would take a break and meditate. She knew when the body needed to rest, otherwise it wouldn't be able to function properly. When she meditated, she always felt a surge of power go through her. She had read so many books about that feeling so she referred it as 'the zone'. Like when an athlete is in their best condition and is much better than usual.

Afterwards, she did an exercise that would increase her acceleration; the ability to increase to top speed in a short time. She would walk, then suddenly start sprinting at full speed, then jog and sprint again and so on. It was also good for increasing stamina. Once she was done doing that, she went home to spar with her father.

"I'm back!" She shouted and went to find her father where she knew he would be. In the living room with the TV. "Hey dad... would you be able to spar with me?" She asked quietly, nervous since she hadn't asked him in such a long time.

Her father looked surprised, "Yea, increase your weights and get in the Dojo." He closed his book, got up, and headed to the Dojo.

"Yes..." She pouted internally. Whenever she sparred with anyone she would increase her weights. Her father walked in as she was putting them on.

"Kagero, come on you can take more weight. Add more than that."

She sighed and struggled to get up. The weights now weighed her total body weight which was much more than she was used to. Her father stepped onto the room floor and took his stance. Waiting for her father's signal she started her exchange.

Kagero immediately accelerated to her father's backside to get the advantage. She jumped and planted her heel in a dropkick to his collar bone. Right after she tried to jump off his shoulder while she kicked him, but he grabbed her ankle and twisted her around. With her flexibility, she arched backwards and grabbed his ankles and rotated her hips to break free of his grip. The added weight was starting to take its toll as she was starting to get sluggish. She couldn't do any more of her fancy acrobatic moves anymore. So she took a low stance, weight mainly on the back right leg.

Her father rushed her with a barrage of punches and kicks and she managed to block the ones targeted for her stomach and ribs. Kagero managed to escape the bombardment. She crouched down low and did a sweep kick to her father's pivot with all her force. He stumbled. She took the chance to do another sweep kick. Though for some creativity and variety she jumped while she spun to aim for his head. Her father wasn't expecting a follow up kick—his balance was already off center so he blocked his upper body for impact, but Kagero changed the course of the kick and nailed him in his ribs. Kagero stopped her attacks when one of her knees gave out. Her father saw this and went into attack mode once again. This went on for a while until Kagero couldn't stand anymore. They took a break, and on the break Kagero meditated to regulate her breathing.

Her father was baffled; he hadn't sparred with her for about two years. She had always trained by herself. She had improved so much that he wasn't disgraced anymore, disgraced that the heir to his dojo was a woman. He thought that since he had a daughter instead of a son she wouldn't be able to reach the level required to run the establishment. He had hid the fact that she was a girl from their family since she was four. He was snapped out of his trance when his daughter spoke.

"Hey, it's past five, I didn't notice." She breathed out a deep breath.

"Oh, you're right. Then let's have dinner." He stood up and left the training room. He made himself to look impassive, but he was actually quite winded.

Upon having dinner they started talking about her mother. Apparently she was really strong, stronger than her father! Kagero couldn't believe it. She started asking questions about her.

"Hey... is Mother dead?" The sudden serious question caught her father off guard as he stuttered a bit when he went to reply.

"N-No, at least I don't think so I would probably be able to tell if she did Kagero."

"How so?"

"Instinct I guess."

"Then where is she?"

"Let's just say that, she's not of this world." There was a pause as Kagero thought of her next question.

"Are you able to get into contact with her?"

"No..." He said looking down, worried if she would catch on to the lie. It technically wasn't one.

"Ok, this is the last question. Do you have a picture of her?" Kagero knew that she was pestering her father, but she had to know what she looked like at the least!

"I do have a picture, though it's from when we were young. About twenty years old." Her father said as he got up rummaging through some old photo albums. When he found the correct album he flipped through it and showed Kagero the picture.

"Woah, she's beautiful," Kagero couldn't close her gaping mouth.

Her father chuckled, "Yea, you're the spittin' image of her you know."

"Really? Oh, she's wearing the sweater that you gave me!"

"You should try it on" He suggested.

"Yea, be right back!" She said running off with a grin.

 _Leidra, she turned out well_. He thought to himself with a sad smile on his face. _I hope you get to see her again._

Kagero ran to her room and put her clothes on. She noticed a weird feeling or 'vibe' coming from the clothes. It was a warm feeling, as if someone was there. She then ran off to her father.

"Oh, it looks great Kage."

"Really?"

"Yea." Her father had a nostalgic tone to his voice that made her feel a bit sorry for her father. "Oh, I forgot, new episodes are out." He noticed when he looked at his watch.

"Well, you can go ahead and watch them. I need to finish my contraption." Kagero said, walking off to her father's workshop in the back yard.

Kagero had been creating some shoe attachments. They were an ongoing project that she had been working on for about a year with many prototypes and failures. She had to get her father to teach her how to weld and she figured out the rest. There were billions of books out there to help her out. About an hour later she was almost finished, she just had to put the special wheels on and it was done.

"YEAH! Done!" She exclaimed, ecstatic to try them out.

She made attachments to her shoes that would be able to change her normal sneakers into Rollerblades within a simple snap—though once she attached them she wouldn't be able take it off without ripping the sole of the shoe off. She had gotten the idea when her father had taken her out for her birthday once to a retro roller skating rink and she fell in love with roller blades. Once she had enough understanding of the makeup of Rollerblades and the skill to work with metal she decided to make a pair. But her idea was not just a Rollerblade but an attachment that would be able to change from a shoe to one in a matter of seconds.

When she put them on to test them they worked like a breeze, and when she was done, she could fold the wheels on the shoes so they were flat. The wheels were custom made so the sides of them were just like the bottom of a regular sneaker.

 _I guess it's about time_. He got up to go get Kagero to hear her running through the house.

"Dad, dad! I finished them!"

"Oh, really? Do they actually work?"

"Yea!"

"Would you like to go test them out?" Her father asked to receive an eager nod in return. "Ok, I wanted to show you something anyways, wait by the door."

"Ok!" She ran to the door.

Her father went to her daughters room and grabbed two small little bag of hers it was the type of bag that attach to your pants and it could hold quite a bit too; just like those pouches in that Naruto anime he was in the middle of. He put some of her stuff in it like her Mp3, deodorant and a letter. He put some spare clothes in there such as an extra pair of underwear—she wore briefs by the way—new bandages, and a t-shirt and black shorts.

He walked to the door and met up with his daughter.

"So where are we going?"

"Just follow me."

She did just as he told without questioning him. On the way there she was using her roller blade shoes. They were working great even on the bumpy and rocky path. They reached the peak of the mountain and a meteor shower had started.

"I guess it's time." He mumbled to himself sadly.

"Hmm? What was that?"

"Kagero, take these, you'll need them." He said with the two bags in his palms.

"Ok...?" She took them and attached them to her shorts.

"Kage, I love you. I hope you'll be able to love your mother like I did." His eyes started to water.

"What are you talking about? It's not like I'm going to leave. You're saying it as if you're saying goodbye..."

Her clothes started to glow as a light from the night sky got closer and closer. The glow enveloped her. She looked to her father to see him cry for the first time. She'd never seen him cry before. He looked up at his daughter that was floating off of the cliff of the mountain and smiled as everything around them turned pure white.

Then...

She vanished...

The last thing she heard was, "Have fun," and the last thing she saw was her father smiling face streaming with tears.

She was now in a world of white, she blinked and suddenly everything around her was blue. Kagero looked up and was blinded by the sun that was high in the sky. But there was one odd thing that was nagging, clawing at her mind.

 _Wait… sky?_ Her eyes widened.

Then Kagero suddenly started falling, falling from an unknown height and she couldn't remember anything clearly. Kagero was stunned about the fact that her throat wasn't dying from the screaming that she wasn't doing. It was most likely the adrenaline that was keeping her calm. She was free falling and saw a brown spec in the vast blue ocean below her. That she was falling towards.

The people on the boat below noticed something coming from above at high speeds. Kagero was close enough to see that it was a boat. Just as she was close enough to see their faces, a thought went through her mind. She was falling from such a high height that terminal velocity was probably going to kill her.

 _Crap._

And she crashed onto the deck of the boat, knocked out on impact.

 **(Omake)**

"Kage, I love you. I hope you'll be able to love your mother like I did." His eyes started to water.

"What are you talking about? It's not like I'm going to leave. You're saying it as if you're saying goodbye..." Kagero blinked... Then she stiffened, eyes widening. _Don't tell me... He's gonna push me off?!_ She started to panic, and that's when her clothes started to glow, _What? Now I'm going Super Sayan_?

Overwhelmed by the unusual things going on she froze, then she started floating.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

The freak out she had stopped whatever was going on and she plummeted off the face of the cliff.

She screamed.

Her father fell to his knees, and screamed out, "Kagero _oooo_!"

Text appeared in the air.

 _Game over_.

 _Restart_.

 **(Omake End)**

 **Hey guys, how's it goin'? This is going to be an updated/redone story of Transfer of Worlds from my old account. I can't get into it anymore... I hope this doesn't get taken down, if it does I'm posting it on my Wattpad account under the same username. Jazeoth. Sorry for the inconvenience.**


	2. Chapter 2

The boat had _just_ left Whale Islands harbor and something dramatic was already happening. They had thugs galore and that wasn't even as dramatic as what was happening. A person was falling. Yes _falling_. He, she, it, _whatever_ the person was, they just came out of nowhere on a crash course to the boat.

"Woah! Someone's falling!" One of the crew members finally noticed as the person was getting closer and closer by the millisecond. They didn't know what to do and panicked. Some people were even running to and fro, but it was too late. The person had already crashed onto the deck. You could have sworn that you heard a crack. It would be one of two things, the kid's head, or the wood. Possibly both. Some blood was on the deck which caused one of the sailors to faint. A few people ran up to the kid who seemed to be a boy, but the majority of them were still panicking.

"What should we do?!" A kid clad in green ran up to the injured boy that had fallen from the sky. He was clearly panicked.

"We need to patch him up." A man in a suit with a briefcase said worriedly as he walked up to the boy on the ground. A blond haired boy was next to him as he examined the boy's body. They carefully picked the boy up, the blond and the suited man could barely lift him up, so they needed to get the thugs to help them carry the boy to the cabin for safety's sake. They didn't need the kid to drop a second time.

"What kind of kid weighs that much? Sheesh." The suited man complained while he put a bandage on his forehead. He didn't want to move his neck in case of a neck injury. They were wondering why the boy fell from the sky, but they were pretty sure it wasn't any of their business.

"Maybe he wants to take the hunter exam!" The green boy chirped. Little did they know that the captain of the ship was eavesdropping and noted a late applicant.

Roughly an hour later Kagero was stirring from her slumber. Thoughts from the previous experience were running through her head, she took a deep breath of air and noticed something.

"Father!" She lunged up from her bed, but immediately reeled back in pain.

"Calm down you had a nasty fall." The man in the suit said as Kagero held her head in pain. _No kidding_ , they thought. "Take these. They will help with the head pain." He handed her two pills.

A few minutes later of agonizing pain and Kagero was finally able to think straight since the drugs were coming into effect.

"Where am I?"

"On a boat to the hunter exam!" A boy in green said in a cheery tone.

"Oh..." Kagero held her head, only then she noticed that she had bandages on.

"This seems to be a case of amnesia. What's your name?" The blond boy asked.

"K-Kagero Kazuma."

"Nice to meet you Kagero!" The green clad boy reached out his hand.

Kagero hesitated to shake his hand, but did so trying to be polite.

"So what happened?" The blond boy asked.

"I... don't know." Suddenly her mind was filled with her previous memories. Her eyes teared up and a single tear fell down her face. Her father was all she could think of, and these people seemed familiar.

She then remembered her father, saying _have fun_. Did that mean that he wants her so stay there? Somehow she had been transferred to another world. _Father always said that mother was that of another world... That's it! That of another world, mother must be from this world!_ Right then and there she thought of her goal, she would find her mother. Kagero always wanted to meet the woman. While she was sitting on the bed, she felt herself swaying. _Am I on a boat? In the first episode of the anime they took a boat to the hunter exam... So I have to start from the beginning?_ She pondered, thinking of what to do next. She barely knew anything about the anime. _Father mentioned Mother's name... Li-Leidra I think? Yea, Leidra Kazuma. They did get married after all._

"Excuse me, you there?" A voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh, sorry."

"So what happened?" The blond boy repeated.

"Well... I don't remember _falling_ , but I did come here for a reason." Kagero faked trying to remember. "I want to find my mother, and I think that becoming a hunter is the best bet."

"Oh, that's the same as me! Though I'm looking for my father instead," The green boy exclaimed. _Why is he so happy? It's cute though._

She took another deep breath in and noticed something in the air, moisture. "We should go up to the deck."

"Why?" The suited man asked.

"I need to check something. Something smells..." This earned weird looks from the three in the room.

As they went up to the deck they got many stares, mainly Kagero since she fell from the sky and was so heavy for her size. She heard one of them muttering incoherent curse words. _Wow, what pissed him off?_

Kagero took a deep breath in, and so did Gon. "Ah-ha, I was right! There's going to be a storm, a huge one too." As Kagero said that, the birds started getting loud. A man with a big red rectangle nose came up to the group.

"How could you tell?" The man asked, smoking his pipe.

The two of them looked towards the green boy who was jumping up to the mast acrobatically.

"Well, it smells like a storm's coming, doesn't the air smell a bit sweet? That's the smell of ozone, or a type of oxygen in the clouds." Kagero started rambling towards the end. "The humidity also gives it away."

"Yea a storm is coming! I mean, that's what the birds are saying!" The green boy yelled from the top of the mast.

"Birds do get rowdy when there's a storm on its way."

Kagero decided to train in the meantime, and instead of some rigorous training that would look ridiculous in front of all the people, she decided to stretch—increasing her muscle elasticity and flexibility would help in difficult situations. An hour of _rigorous_ stretching passed by and the clouds started rolling in. Dark mean clouds, this storm was going to be _huge_. Pokémon the First Movie huge.

The storm came in and it was indeed _huge_. All the hunter candidates went into the cabin, seeking shelter. The green clad boy, the blondie, and the middle aged suit guy were all relaxing. Kagero decided to use her roller shoes with the waves to improve her balance and get used to them. She was in a long hallway that leads from the captain's quarters to the bathroom. The cabin was down some stairs.

The waves became rough and Kagero ended up rolling from one side of the hallway to another. Practicing turning when the ship leaned the other way, and using only one foot at times; Kagero was having a blast, though... her predicament would say otherwise. Her father must have wanted her to come here for a reason. After all, he was the nicest he had ever been to her that day.

 _He must want me to find Mother._ She thought to herself as she was rolling around having fun.

The captain then started walking around leaving someone else in in charge of the wheel. _The waves had died down so I guess that he's checking up on everyone._ As he walked by he looked at Kagero with a strange look for some reason, and walked towards the cabin. As he walked off, he muttered something under his breath, "Well, _someone's_ having fun." She laughed at the tone he used, then she heard the man sigh and she laughed harder.

After a while Kagero focused back onto her training and didn't notice someone running around. He was tall and skinny with a bucket of water and a glass. _I guess that some people couldn't take the storm_ , she thought to herself. She had been lucky that she was fine. After all, it was her first time on a boat.

The waves weren't as large anymore and she got bored with the training that she was doing, so she decided to stop. She sat on the ground switching her shoes back to normal the captain walked by with the three people that helped her out and beckoned her to go with them. The three following him just looked at her curiously. The Captain led them to the helm and lined them up.

"First of all, tell me your names."

"I'm Gon!" He was happy as if he had no worries in the world.

"My name is Kurapika," The blond said calmly.

"Leorio." The man said with a serious face that didn't _suit_ him that much.

"I'm Kagero, you can call me Kage or Mirage... I don't really care..." Kagero said looking outside at the pitch black sky. She swore she could see a tube in the distance. _What was that called again_ _? It's on the tip of my tongue…_

"Why do you want to become hunters?" The captain said stoically, puffing his pipe.

"Hey, if you're not an examiner you can't boss us around!" Leorio yelled at the captain. Man his voice was loud.

"Just answer the question!" The captain said pressuring them to answer.

Gon then started talking breaking the tense atmosphere. "My dad is a hunter. I left Whale Island because I want to know why my dad desired so much to be a hunter."

"Hey _kid,_ you just can't tell him whatever he wants!"

"Why _can't_ I tell him why I'm here?" Gon pouted.

"Not a team player huh? Well, I don't want to tell him why I'm here." Leorio huffed, crossing his arms and looking away.

"I agree with Leorio. I can offer a plausible lie, but that would rely on deceit. But that said, if I were to tell you the truth, I would be exposing my deepest secrets." While Kurapika was talking he ignored Leorio who was yelling at him.

"In other words, you two refuse to answer my question... Hey Katsuo! Tell the board that we have two more drop outs." Kurapika's and Leorio's faces went from a serious and an annoyed one, to an utterly shocked one within seconds.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Leorio managed to mutter.

"The exam has already started. Don't you get it?" Kagero said with her arms behind her head. "He's been hired to eliminate the extras." _Well that's all I remember from that episode father showed me_.

"Precisely. There are as many hunter wannabes as there are stars in the sky. The examiners don't have enough time or resources to review them all." He took a puff of his pipe and continued. "I've already notified the board that everyone else on board had to withdraw."

"So if you don't answer his question you'll be eliminated." Kagero said looking towards the two.

Kurapika explained about why he was here and it all went downhill, revenge was his purpose. He seemed like a nice guy, but he will ruin himself if he keeps heading in that direction. As he talked about his past Kage noticed his eyes turn red for a mere moment. Kurapika and Leorio got into a squabble until Gon butted in and asked why Leorio was here.

Leorio also explained his purpose of taking the exam, simply put, he wants money. The way he said it made him look like a total stuck up jerk that would rule over people with money if he could.

Then Kurapika just _had_ to do it. "Money can't buy class Leorio." After he said that Leorio just snapped.

"That's the third time now... Step outside. I'll sever the Kurta bloodline, _here_ and _now_."

"Take that back Leorio!" Leorio only turned back to him from where he was standing and stared him down. "That's Leorio- _san_ to you." He then walked out and Kurapika followed.

"Hey boys! I'm not done yet!" By this point Kagero was just standing there zoned out looking at the black sky, she noticed that the waves started to pick up a bit. The tube was getting closer too. Gon said something about understanding someone's anger by learning why they got mad, and that they should settle it on their own. The captain turned to Kagero and just stared at her.

"What about you?" Gon asked. She didn't answer.

Kagero snapped out of her confusion when the captain called her.

"Boya."

"Ah... well, I'm here because I'm looking for my mother, and being a hunter is the best way to get information and...I'll be able to travel... I also want to get stronger so...yea." Kagero said as best as she could, getting a bit awkward by the end.

When she finished, the person currently steering the boat yelled, "Captain! L-Look..."

"I remember now! It's called a waterspout!"—and if they were caught in that they would sink. The captain gave her a look and before he could say anything, Kagero rushed out of the room knowing what she should do. There were people outside already trying to get the ropes ready.

People were running around and grabbed onto ropes. They started pulling the mast down when a huge gust of wind sent some sailors flying. One of them flew like a rag-doll and fell overboard, and Gon ran to his rescue and caught his legs, but they were too far over the edge. Meanwhile Leorio and Kurapika were having their showdown when Gon went flying between them, Kagero following behind jumping after them. Kagero grabbed Gon's legs and managed to latch her feet onto the railing of the boat. Leorio and Kurapika came running and grabbed onto her ankles. If they were even a second late, her feet would have lost their grip and Gon herself and the main victim would have been shark bait.

The storm had passed and the blue sky was back to its former glory. There was a shout that could only belong to a certain middle aged man. Leorio...

"You idiots! If we hadn't grabbed Kagero's legs you would both be shark bait right now!"

"Honestly, how reckless can you two be?" Kurapika seemed worried despite his chill body language.

"But you did catch us!" Gon said earning surprised looks from the both of them. "You both caught us!"

Katsuo then ran up to them and thanked Gon and Kagero. Gon told him that if it wasn't for Kurapika and Leorio they'd all be gone. He bowed deeply and left, leaving a thoroughly embarrassed Leorio and a slight blush on Kurapika. In the end they had settled their dispute after Katsuo left.

The captain then came in laughing. "I like you guys! Okay! I'll take responsibility for bringing you four to the port closest to the exam site."

"Really?" An always happy Gon exclaimed, "What about the test?"

There was a pause before he answered, "... You four pass!" What he said brought smiles to the three and a stare from Kagero.

There was some time until they got to the port so they decided to stay on the deck since it was so nice out. Kagero ended up taking a nap while Kurapika read and Leorio conversed with some other people. Gon was at the top of the mast looking at the view.

A few hours later and they arrived at the port.

"Hey Kagero! It's time to go!" As Gon yelled this Kagero suddenly appeared by his side. "Woah! You scared me!" But in return all Gon got was a yawn. Kurapika laughed a bit and Leorio just burst out laughing as they left.

"Hey, are there any stores around here?" Kagero asked a pedestrian.

"Yea, down that street and to the right is a district."

She thanked the man and walked back over to the group. "Do you guys want to grab something to eat first?"

"That would be a good idea."

While they walked to a restaurant Kagero noticed a gym. "Hey, could you guys wait here a minute? I just need to grab something really quick."

"Ok, we'll just be at this restaurant." Kurapika pointed at a sandwich shop.

Kagero nodded and ran off to the gym, she had already gotten used to her training weights. She needed to make it heavier; it just felt _weird_ without the strain. She talked to the gym owner and they sold weights, but not that many. She bought some weights that she could add to her wrist and ankle weights, the weights were now over double her body weight. She didn't know if it was the different world or what, but she felt much lighter that she should, was it the gravity? Luckily, her father put money in her pouch, but how did he know the currency? Did the money automatically change? No one would know~

After Kagero was done, she went to the sandwich shop that everyone was at.

"So what did you get?" A curious Gon asked. Kurapika and Leorio also looked curious.

"Just some training weights," Kagero said as she took a sip of water that was in front of her.

"Really? How much do they weigh?" Kurapika asked.

"Actually, I don't know." Kagero took one off of her wrist and gave it to Kurapika. Kurapika's arm was shaking just trying to hold it.

"J-just _how_ heavy is this?" Kurapika looked at it and noticed that she took it off of her wrist, "And how many of these do you have?" He had a shocked look on his face.

"Four, two for my wrists and two for my ankles."

Leorio was dumbfounded and Gon had the same face as Leorio on. Kagero took the weight back and put it back on. She made it look like it was as light as a feather.

"We should go now, or it's going to get late before we know it." Kurapika said as he was not that shocked anymore.

"The captain said that we should go towards that huge tree on the hill!" Gon said as he finished his sandwich.

"Yea, that tree catches my eye, it seems suspicious." Kagero agreed with Gon. Kurapika raised an eyebrow, the suspicious tree part amusing to him.

Kagero and Gon walked towards the hill while Leorio complained that they shouldn't listen to strangers. Kurapika followed the two and Leorio came running after them after hearing some gossip about the busses being dead ends.

 **(Omake)**

Kagero decided to not take the nap she was planning to take. It was way too nice out for that.

There was one thing she couldn't get off her mind. It was a burning question that needed to be answered! _Is Kurapika a trap? I've heard of them from my father, like that Hideyoshi character_. The curiosity was just _killing_ her so she just _had_ to go and ask.

She took a cautious step forward and cleared her throat, "Umm... Kurapika?"

"Yes Kagero?" He asked, putting a lock of his hair behind his ear.

"I'm not sure if you're... Well..." She sighed, and went right to the point, "Are you a woman? Or a–" she was cut off.

He gasped, "Wha- What? O-of course not. B-Baka!" He—or she—pushed Kagero, she fell down the stairs.

She blinked, dumbfounded to what she discovered. _...T-Tsundere?!_

 **(Omake End)**

 **Ps: Just so you know, Kurapika is actually a man, and not a tsundere. Just for the sake of comedy. Hahaha.**


	3. Chapter 3

Walking up the slope of the hill, the group was talking about who knows what, with the only one choosing to be silent was Kagero. She was listening to her music, she was so glad that her father put it in her bag when she was 'transferred'. Her taste in music vas varied, but she generally liked faster upbeat or intense rhythms. Country was a no-no for her.

Looking around the clearing, she saw a bird flying overhead. A hawk from the looks of it, the bird was circling over them. The weather was really nice and the nice coastal breeze was refreshing. Gon occasionally looked her way wondering why she was so quiet, but brushed it off when Kagero waved to him, letting him know that she was fine. After a while she was getting annoyed because the guy that was _trying_ to follow them wasn't doing a very good job, but he didn't seem like much of a threat so she let it slide. But _seriously_ , he tripped two times already, stepped on a twig and accidentally kicked a rock... nice skills there _… Is he playing hopscotch or what?_ She jabbed at his stalking skills. She wasn't a tracker, or a ninja, but man he sucked at stalking people.

They were quite far from the town but could still see it and the area they were was amazing. The view of the harbor was beautiful and there were flowers everywhere. The air smelt like wet ground and it was very relaxing. Until _someone_ started ranting... Leorio was babbling about how he would stick with them for a while longer since they would ' _oh-so-miss-him_ ' and such.

The scenery was slowly turning into a barren wasteland, the vast green field disappearing the closer they got to the top. On the top of the hill they were climbing they saw some buildings in the distance. From the distance they were at they could see that those buildings were from an abandoned village. Kagero, Gon and Kurapika approached with caution when they noticed the people in the shadows. On an unknown signal they suddenly barged through a door on a long wheeled platform.

They all wore masks and robes with the exception of a single old lady who sat in the center. The people had fur coming out from the masks that made Kagero want to feel them. They were also holding some instruments like a trombone, a tambourine and a squeaky horn, the last one of them had a crow.

 _That's… not an instrument. Weird…_

The old lady, who resembled a hippo—not trying to be rude but it's honestly the best way to describe her in the simplest way. Two giant teeth and the short large stature with some fat rolls and a bunch of wrinkles, _anyways_ —started to whisper. She repeated the words 'doki doki' a few times and Leorio, being as weird as he was, repeated her, getting into it apparently. Kagero could feel that the lady was into theatrics with all the weird. There was a pause but the lady followed up with something that surprised the most of them.

"Exciting two-choice quiz!" The old lady yelled at quite an impressive volume with her raspy old voice. Everyone was dumbfounded. The people in the masks had instruments and played a weird tune. Kagero thought that those people were thinking something along the lines of 'get me out of here' or the more plausible, 'please kill me now'. The latter seemed like the best choice.

 _Yes she's definitely into theatrics. We are one of kin!_

After the music stopped the old lady spoke, "You boys are headed for the tree on the hill, correct?" She paused and looked at the group, "To get to that tree you must pass through this town. To do so, I shall administer a single question quiz."

"Oi oi," Leorio interrupted, but the lady ignored him and continued. He did not look amused. Not at all. The tick mark was forming.

"You'll have five seconds to answer. Get the wrong answer and you're disqualified."

"So this is a part of the hunter exam." Kurapika realized that there would be tests like this along the way.

"Excuse me," Kagero interrupted, the lady paid attention, probably because she was polite about it. That would annoy Leorio to no end. "Would I be able to do the quiz separately? I want to test myself a bit." Also if they did it in a group if one of them got it wrong they would all fail. Better safe than sorry. But then again, Kurapika was smart and if she didn't know surely he might.

 _Aww man, I might have just screwed myself over!_

"That's fine as long as it's okay with your group." The lady gave Kagero permission. She looked to the group and they nodded saying that it's alright for her to do so.

"The answer will be either one or two. Any other answer will be incorrect."

Leorio and Kurapika started arguing about how it was unfair to be in a group to answer such a question, but Gon said it would be easier since only one of them would need to know the answer to pass. After Gon's logic the two calmed down in agreement.

Then the guy that was following them came out since he was becoming impatient. "Hey, hurry it up already. Or else I'll answer the question first." He said with an ugly smirk.

"Who is he?" Leorio questioned being as clueless as he was.

"He followed us from the port," Gon pointed out.

"You didn't notice?" Leorio shot Kagero a glare. _Well he_ is _really bad at stalking people…_ she thought looking away from Leorio with a bit of a pout.

The old lady intervened and silenced the group. "What will you do?"

The 'gang' thought that he seemed eager to take it and that they would be able to expect what question to be asked so they let them go first. The old lady looked at Kagero and she nodded in approval.

Everyone moved behind the stalker guy and the questioned was asked. "Evil villains have captured your mother and lover. You could only save one. Select one for your mother and two for your lover. Which one will you save?" Her eyes narrowed at the last comment to add pressure.

The three were shocked. "H-How is this even a quiz?" Leorio was agape. _Haha, agape, an ape._

The man had pushed the button right away. "I choose one." The lady replied asking why he chose that answer. "Because I can't replace my mother, but I can replace my lover."

"You may pass," The lady gestured for the man to pass behind the cart with her thumb.

"Heh, you just have to tell the lady what she wants to hear," The man whispered and left.

Leorio snapped and yelled something about there being no right answer. Kurapika figured out the trick to the question, but the lady silenced him before he could tell Leorio. Leorio simmered while waving a stick around.

 _Anything more and I bet he'll burst a vein_ , Kagero bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

The time was soon up and Leorio rushed the old woman with the stick, Kurapika stopped him in the nick of time with his hidden weapons. The snapping of the stick echoed against the building walls.

"Don't stop me Kurapika! I won't be satisfied until I've taught this _hag_ a lesson!"

"Calm down, Leorio!"

"How am I supposed to calm down?!"

"You'll waste our correct response!" After Kurapika said this Leorio was shocked. "We gave the right answer. Silence was the correct response." After they settled things the door opened and the lady had passed them. Gon was still sitting on the ground thinking when the two told him the quiz was over.

"I know it's over but, what if it actually happened?" Gon said earning silence from everyone.

Kagero then stepped in. "I guess it's my turn then." She said getting up from the wall she was leaning against, dusting off her shorts. She grinned from under her hood. This would be interesting.

Kurapika and Leorio turned for the tunnel when Gon said something.

"Leorio, Kurapika, we should wait for Mirage!" Gon said being the kind kid that he was. Leorio and Kurapika complied and walked to sit against the wall in the shade.

A second lady then came out and stood beside the first one. They looked exactly the same, but one was wearing white and the other black. "We have a riddle for you." One said. "There are two answers." The other said exchanging sentences, "You have two minutes to figure out the answer. You can ask us to repeat it only once." The two said at the same time, "Are you ready?"

"Yes." Kagero said as she sat down in front of the cart. Crossing her legs she leaned forward propping her head up with her hand.

The lady's proceeded to tell the riddle. "We both have it and it is always near." The two said in sync. "I can't be touched, but can be felt." The black robbed lady said "Yet I can't be touched but I can't be felt." The white lady said right after. "We can't be opened but can be gone into. We are both the same but aren't in one sense and we both move according to the time." There was a pause then they spoke again "You have two minutes to answer."

Kagero sat on the ground pondering as Gon, Kurapika and Leorio were whispering. "Hey why did the question change? She didn't change the question for us when the other guy went before us." Gon whispered.

"Because she would know the answer. They most likely change it every time someone gets it right." Kurapika said earning a 'o' from Gon and Leorio.

Meanwhile Kagero was still thinking. _Hmm... They both have it and is always near. They both can't be touched but one can be felt and the other cant. Also they move according to the time._ Kagero tried to remember something about the sun. _When the sun moves so does it. We all have it._ Kagero rocked back to look behind her to see her shadow and thought that shadow was one answer. She put her hand behind her and noticed that she couldn't feel her shadow. Her eyebrow quirked when she looked over to Gon, Kurapika and Leorio who were sitting in the shade of a building, they were clearly trying to find an answer too. _That's it! Shade!_ She jumped up from her position, confusing the others, and walked over to the shade to see that it was indeed cooler in temperature. _Also they can't be opened but can be gone in to._

"Thirty seconds left." The lady's said, as Kagero walked back to the button.

Kagero slapped the button and answered. "You are a shadow" She said pointing to the white robbed lady, "And you are shade," She said pointing to the black robbed lady.

"Why do you choose this answer?" The two said in sync once again.

"Shadows and shade move with time, or from where the sun moves. We can't open something that can't be touched but we can go into it, and a shadow can't be felt but shade can. It's the temperature difference," Kagero said confidently.

"You are correct, you may pass." The white old lady said. The black one went back into an abandoned house.

"Yea! You did it Mirage!" Gon exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"You're quite knowledgeable," Kurapika complemented Kagero.

Kagero had a blank look on her face. "Why did you start calling me Mirage?"

"Well, you said that we could call you that or Kage, I think Mirage suits you better!" Gon chirped.

"Thanks..." Kagero smiled internally.

The older lady interrupted them and told them to go down a path that went all the way to the tree.

Kagero was about to enter the tunnel, when a thought irked her. She walked up to one of the masked persons, "Hey, can I touch your mask?"

Kurapika raised an eyebrow. _What is he doing?_

She had to reach up—because she just happened to ask the tallest person there—and pet the mane of pure fluffyness.

"Woah..." Her eyes sparkled and she smiled, "It's _so_ soft."

Leorio noticed the hold up and whirred around, and raised an eyebrow before a vein bulged, "W-what are you doing? We have to go!"

Kagero huffed and frowned before turning on her heel, "Yes, yes. I'm coming," She started to walk, pouting, before turning to walk backwards, "Bye Oba-san-tachi! And thanks for letting me feel your mask, ma'am, s-sirrrr…? Person!" She grinned and ran off before Leorio yelled again.

"What were you doing Mirage?" Gon asked curiously.

"I asked if I could feel a person's mask... it was very soft." Kagero said while looking at her hand, remembering the fluff her hand had felt. Leorio looked at her weirdly.

"I should have asked too!" Gon exclaimed.

"Hmm, you should have." Kagero said before it was silent for a while.

"How long has it been?" Leorio complained.

"I don't know, ten minutes? You're too impatient, Liorio" She messed his name up just to tease him.

"It's LE-O-RI-O" He yelled each individual syllable. It echoed throughout the tunnel. The three victims of the vocal torture winced, and before Kagero could open her mouth to yell back at the loud imbecile, Gon came in.

"You know, we can have a race! That would be fun!"

Kagero smirked, "That seems..." She looked to Kurapika and Leorio on her respective sides then to Gon, "—like _fun_!" She bolted off in a sprint.

"Ah! No fair!" Gon ran to catch up.

"Oh, you're fast. But can you match... _this_?" She accelerated, grinning since she was having fun, and her clothes started to glow.

"Oi!" Leorio yelled, "Kurapika says it's dangerous!" Then both he and Kurapika took on a confused look. _Is... Is he... glowing?_

She screeched to a stop and blinked, and then Gon was right beside her. "Oh, well that's careless of me."

Gon blinked, taking a breath in before yelling excitedly, "Woah! That's _soo_ cool! You're glowing!"

While Gon was zipping around her to get a closer look Leorio and Kurapika caught up with a jog.

"Why are you glowing?" Kurapika asked.

Kagero was still confused herself, she didn't know it could glow. "I didn't actually know it could do this. But, it's a keepsake."

"Uuuaaah, thats so cool!" Gon said, you could tell that it piqued his interest with all the zipping around that he was doing.

Kurapika ended up making Kagero walk in the front because her clothing could be used as a light source to see ahead.

"So, I guess I'm the leader, huh." She smiled to herself, amused by the situation at hand.

About two hours later Leorio started complaining... _again_ , "When are we going to get there? I have to go for a dump! I have to piss too!"

They had come out of the tunnel roughly an hour ago, more or less, and they were now in a marsh—a very murky ominous looking marsh.

"Shut up Leorio!" Kagero yelled since she could hear him through her headphones. "Can't you see the signs? If you're too loud we'll get attacked." Kagero sighed. "I guess mauled would be a better term if it's an animal..." She contemplated.

"Oh, I can see it." Kurapika commented while Leorio was still complaining. Leorio's thought process was rather slow you see, and it took him a good minute to realise what he said.

"What! We're almost there?!"

Kurapika sighed. "Yes, I said that a minute ago, Leorio."

"Now shut up and walk." Kagero said irritated. Though she smiled, Leorio's reactions were the best.

Walking up the stairs onto the porch, it seemed like no one was home.

Leorio knocked and went to open the door, and what they witnessed was a huge yellow monster, or magical beast as Kurapika defined them, with a woman in its arms. The Kiriko could also take human form, which would be troublesome, and it was even intelligent. Even more troublesome. There was also an injured man on the floor to the side. The Kiriko ran off jumping through a window.

"Kurapika, Gon, you guys go after the Kiriko. Leorio will treat the man, and more might come, I'll stand guard." Kurapika and Gon nodded and went after it while Leorio and Kagero stayed with the injured man.

Kurapika went off to chase the Kiriko in the woods, it was night time so it was extremely hard to see, but Gon managed to see the faint shadows. When Gon found out that they understood human speech he insulted the Magical beast causing it to flinch and turn for a mere second, in which gave Gon an opening for an attack. Gon hit it in the middle of its head with his fishing rod and it dropped its hostage. Gon continued the chase while Kurapika caught the woman.

'Leorio' came to the scene and Kurapika hit him upside the head because he was meant to be with the injured man. Kurapika didn't know until he laughed and transformed, it was actually a Kiriko in disguise. It ran off into the deep dark woods and left the two alone. Kurapika noticed the tattoos around the 'wife's' wrists and threatened her. Those tribal tattoos labeled a woman single for life, yet she was supposedly 'married' to the man.

Back with Leorio and Kagero, the man was patched up and asleep. Leorio sat beside the man checking him every so often, while Kagero meditated on the window sill. While Kagero was meditating she sensed malice, coming closer at a fast pace.

"Leorio, keep your guard up!" She warned. Leorio flinched, reaching for his knife. Just then a Kiriko barged in through the door and Kagero intercepted it, it tried to get through to Leorio. The creature probably deciphered that he was the only one with medical knowledge, and that it was best to remove him first.

Leorio got his knife out and stood by the man while Kagero and the beast fought. The beast rushed Kagero but she blocked and dodged the strong hits effectively. Kagero counter attacked with a swift kick that sent it flying through the house and out the door. It tried to run away, but Kagero caught up to it and tripped it by doing a leg sweep. The Kiriko sharpened its claws and slashed at Kagero only for her to dodge by getting closer, going under its arm. The Kiriko's elbow slammed into Kagero's collar bone. She winced but grabbed its arm as it tried to slash her with it's other, and threw it into the deep woods. She then walked back to the cabin, nursing a sore shoulder, where Leorio was.

When she got back she looked at the injured man, he wasn't asleep, she couldn't believe she missed that, and the wounds on his face were already healed. She walked up to him and unsheathed her hidden blade. She could have brought it out earlier, but she was caught up in the moment and it didn't occur to her, it was attached to her arm and came out from under her sweater sleeve. She pointed the sharp blade towards the man's neck.

"Who. Are. You." She said threateningly with a deep tone that made Leorio flinch.

The 'injured' man got up with both hands up in a sign of peace, though she couldn't trust the gesture. As her blade got closer to his jugular, the others came back.

"Mirage, you can stop now." Kurapika said entering the house, "The test is over." Kagero lowered her hand and sheathed her blade. She straightened out and stretched, that was too much suspense for her tastes.

"Test!?" Leorio was utterly shocked. The Kiriko explained the purpose of the test.

"Hmm, how many years has it been since anyone could tell us apart?" The husband said happily.

"Could you tell them apart?" Leorio whispered.

"No, not at all..." Kurapika replied quietly.

"The husband's eyes are narrower." Kagero commented earning a look from the two and the Kiriko.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves, we are the navigators. Our family provides support for the hunter exam. "

"I'm their son," The man said raising his hand, looking to Kagero nervously. She just smiled from under her hood. The man paled—the shadow from her hood made it look malicious, though the others couldn't see it.

"And I'm their daughter." She said doing the same gesture as her brother.

"The hunter exam changes location every year. It's quite difficult to locate it."

"So we navigators help by guiding the applicants to the sight."

"But we don't help every candidate." The daughter interpreted.

"So we test the applicants to see which ones are worthy to take the hunter exam." The son came in finishing the statement.

"Kurapika-dono. You successfully used the vaguest of hints to determine that we weren't spouses. The hints were these tattoos that mean a woman is marked single for life." She paused as she wiped off the tattoo. It was fake. "Kurapika-dono demonstrated that he is very knowledgeable. Therefore he passes." Gon smiled and fist pounded with Kurapika.

"Leorio-dono," The son said as he came in. "You never realized my true identity. However, you dressed my injures faster and more thoroughly than any doctor, you also kept assuring me that my wife was safe." He paused. "Your kindness makes you worthy to take the Hunter Exam." Gon fist pounded Leorio who was on the ground sighing with relief. He was also blushing slightly, embarrassed from what the son said.

"Gon-dono." The husband Kiriko said getting a 'hai' from Gon. "Your super human physical ability and powers of observation makes you worthy to take the Hunter Exam."

"Finally, Kagero-dono," This caught Kagero's attention and she was snapped out of her trance. "You were able to sense me when I was coming back to ambush you and successfully fought me off."

Then his son interrupted and continued, "You also discovered that I was not human and revealed my identity. Your ability to sense things and your suburb strength and fighting ability make you worthy to pass."

This didn't really earn any reaction from Kagero but Gon lifted his hand gesturing her to fist pound. Kagero awkwardly fist pounded him earning a huge grin in return. She smiled, and before the others could notice, it vanished. She wasn't sure whether she should open up to them or not yet.

"We will take you to the hunter exam." They said as they spread their wings.

"Wait..."

"What is it Mirage?" Kurapika asked Kagero, now using the nickname Gon started using.

"I don't think you guys would be able to carry me... I'm… too heavy."

"What are you talking about? You're a kid?" Leorio interrupted

"Oh yes, your training weights." Kurapika pointed out.

Leorio yelled, "Oh!" As he remembered.

"Let's see if they could lift you!" Gon jumped in with his optimism.

She sighed, "Okay, but they won't be able too."

Kagero was right, the Kiriko's couldn't lift her, she was too heavy. The weight limit of the aircraft was exceeded. They couldn't fly with over two hundred pounds on them!

"You guys go. I'll run it." Kagero said getting a whaaat from Gon.

Kurapika had an eureka moment, "You guys can shape shift right?" Kurapika asked getting a nod from the Kiriko, "Then are you able to shape shift into wolves or another animal that we could ride on? Then we can travel beside him."

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Gon exclaimed.

"I guess we could do that, but won't you be tired?" Leorio asked, actually worrying.

"I'll be fine." Kagero said, reassuring them. They really were good friends. Many she should start opening up to them.

The Kiriko shape shifted into large wolves and Leorio rode on the largest one, Kurapika on the medium one, and Gon on the smallest one. The last Kiriko couldn't carry Kagero so it just stayed beside her.

"Off we go!" Gon yelled with a grin.

 **(Omake)**

Leorio knocked and went to open the door, and what they witnessed was a huge yellow monster, or magical beast as Kurapika defined them, with a woman in its arms. The Kiriko could also take human form, which would be troublesome, and it was even intelligent. Even more troublesome. There was also an injured man on the floor to the side. The Kiriko ran off jumping through a window.

Kagero immediately shot after it, yelling, "Pikachu!" She heard a slapping sound as she ran.

 **(Omake End)**


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, Mirage! Are you ok?" Gon yelled, the rushing winds whipping by made it hard to hear.

Kagero nodded, "Yea." She was out of breath and panting, but she could continue. "Also you don't have to yell, I'm right behind you..." She panted out, and deadpanned. It wasn't really necessary to shout that loudly. Gon rubbed his head sheepishly and quickly gripped back onto the Kiriko after almost falling off.

"Oh he'll be fine. He's a tough kid." Leorio commented, "If he survived that fall, he'll be able to survive this." His laugh clipped shot when Kagero glared. That was hella scary and she wasn't really in a good mood. She was tired, both mentally and physically. She had been thrown out to the wolves—not the Kiriko, since they shapeshifted—and sure it's been interesting so far but man.

 _I'm tired._ She sighed.

"Don't worry Gon," Kurapika came in, "Mirage will say something if he needs to rest." He looked over to Kagero with a serious face. " _Right_ _Mirage_?" He smiled kindly… almost _too_ kindly.

"O-of course..." She wiped sweat off her forehead nervously at the implied threat. Then she shifted the focus off of herself, "But shouldn't we let the Kiriko rest too?"

"We'll be fine. We will let you know if we needed a break." The largest Kiriko—the husband—said.

"I see," Were the last words out of Kagero's mouth before it was dead silent for the next few hours. She could hear loud snoring from Leorio and quiet snoring from Gon. Gon even had a snot bubble going on.

 _How could they fall asleep while riding on wolves... Kiriko... what?_ She ended up confusing herself. She looked to Kurapika, the treat from earlier on her mind. Kagero would have spoken up about her fatigue but she was worried they wouldn't make it in time. She would rather run the whole way and have extra time to rest than take a break now and go straight into the exam.

They reached the outskirts of the city and from atop of the hill they were on they were looking down on the city. Kagero was expecting it to be more polluted, but it was rather nice.

"We can slide down the hill and we'll be a few minutes away."

Kagero wiped the sweat from her face, she felt sticky and it was very unpleasant.

"Let's go!" Gon jumped off and started sliding down.

"What will we do with him?" Leorio sighed, but followed anyways.

Kagero took another moment to recover and launched herself into the air and kicked up a dust of dirt as she slid.

They entered Zaban city the other Kiriko left, leaving the son to lead the group to the sight of the hunter exam. He was explaining that without a navigator, getting to the hunter exam would prove to be extremely difficult or even next to impossible. Gon was too busy running around and jumping from one shady stall to another to pay attention to the man's rant. That was until Leorio yelled at Gon to get his attention and got him to start walking with them again. Thank goodness Gon didn't go to the next stall. That guy looked like he wanted more than a bargain.

Eww.

"Hey guys, I'll be right back."

"Okay—Wait what? Kagero! Where are you going?!" Leorio shouted.

Kagero was too far to hear Leorio. A store in the distance caught her eye, a superstore. She desperately needed a shower, but she knew she wouldn't be getting one anytime soon. So she settled on getting a small towel and some hygiene products to rid her of that sweat. She also got some detergent for her clothes. While looking around she saw a few bags like Kurapika's.

"My pouches won't be able to fit everything…" She picked up a bag in the clearance bin. It had a whole bunch of extra pockets and stuff with a larger main compartment. It would do.

After purchasing her tiems with the rest of the money she had—she still had no idea in the world how her father's money changed currency—she went to find the others. Running out the door she threw the bag over her shoulder with her stuff already in it. She felt bad for leaving them without much of a warning but it was a spur of the moment thing and she left without thinking it through all the way.

Kagero saw a tall man next to a blond and a short spiky haired kid. Yep, they were an easy bunch to notice. She ran up behind them. "Hey, I'm back."

"Where did you go?" Kurapika asked, "We were worried."

She lifted the gray bag to show them. "Just needed to get some stuff." She looked up to the black night sky. "Don't you think we should rest a night before entering? We have about two days before the deadline right? I could sleep for a whole day if I could."

"That's a great idea!"

It took a few minutes to find a place to stay. It wasn't that great of a place, but it worked. Kagero took the chance to take a well needed shower and washed her clothes. After the shower she flopped onto her bed and fell asleep.

Later in the night she started shifting around in her sleep, being haunted by a strange dream. It wasn't scary, just unsettling. A dark void lit very faintly while a dark black cloud circled around her. She woke to knocking at her door and panicked for a few seconds before realizing where she was.

"I'll be out in a minute!"

She joined the group and the Kiriko son led them. A bit more walking and he led them out of the 'please stab me now' section of town and to a huge white building, "I believe that this is the building." He said pointing at a building. However it wasn't the one that three of them thought it was.

"Ahhh, it's tall!" Gon exclaimed. "They have a _really_ nice building."

Leorio whistled, impressed at the size. "So this is the exam site," he said in almost a whisper. Kurapika was silent and just stared at the building, appraising it silently. The three of them stood there in front of the tall building saying nonsense about the hunter exam

"Hey guys, it's over here!" Kagero called to the boys, waving her arm. The boys turned their heads, clearly surprised. The navigator had actually pointed to the ramen shop. It looked shabby, and Leorio started complaining about the fact that thousands of hunter applicants couldn't fit into that building. "No one would expect it to be here." Kagero pointed out. They entered the restaurant to be greeted by a chubby looking chef.

"Is the back room open?"

"What will you have?"

"The steak combo that opens your eyes to the light. For four."

"For four? How would you like them?"

"Grilled over a low flame, until cooked."

"Got it. Let yourselves into the back room."

"Wait," Kagero said, stopping them, "If you have to use the washroom, you should go now."

"Good idea," Leorio said.

While the boys went to the restroom Kagero ordered food for them. Stake would take too long, so she just got them some chicken strips and fries, though she got a salad and fries for herself. _I guess it's not just a ramen shop._ She mainly called for the bathroom break to get some time to order food. She was starving. The quick breakfast earlier didn't even come close to sating her hunger.

While the order was being made, she used the restroom. Then she heard her order number being called. Her stomach growled. She grabbed the food and went to the room they were directed to earlier. Kagero stopped before the door, she could hear them talking and heard her name. Naturally she wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Kagero's taking a while in there. Is he okay? I have some medicine for constipation."

"I can't wait for the steak combo!"

"Gon… that was just a password to get us inside." Kurapika said nonchalantly

"Aww, so we don't get to eat?"

That was when Kagero chose to enter, opening the door with her foot since she had her hands full. "Who said anything about not eating? We need our energy for what we're doing."

"Aww man, you're a life saver." Leorio drooled at the food she was putting on the table.

"Indeed." Kurapika agreed. His eyes seemed to brighten at the food being set.

They started eating and after a little exchange between the navigator and Gon, the navigator left and the room rumbled.

"So it's an elevator..." Kagero muttered looking up to the slowly descending numbers on the wall.

Everyone sat down, though there were only three chairs so Kagero sat against the wall and leaned her arm on her knee head on arm and relaxed, enjoying her meal. But...It was disturbed by an argument between Kurapika and Leorio... Well with the group they had there would be little silence. Then they soon took it to poor Gon, pestering him about which type hunter is better. Kagero clenched her fists and ground her teeth in irritation. Then she exploded, interrupting them right before the elevator stopped.

"Shut up!" She yelled, getting up off the floor, she slammed a fist on the wall. The three looked to an annoyed Kagero scratching the back of her head in an annoyed fashion, she was clearly angry and the two stopped arguing. "A Hunter can do whatever they want, be it for money, honor or both! So quit squabbling!" The elevator door opened and they left, leaving Kagero to glare at their backs. The three of them were terrified by her outburst. She took a deep breath in and took a minute to herself to calm down. Though she would still be irritable, she walked out of the room feeling less angry than before. Though damn her hand still hurt from slamming it against the wall, she could feel it pulsing from where she hit it.

She shook her hand, the pain slowly ebbing away, and entered the room.

The room was shabby, an underground pipeline it seemed. She could practically sense everyone's attention turning to her when she walked in. The majority of them didn't feel like a threat but the odd few did. She would have to find out what people she should stay away from, or at least be on their good side.

"Strange atmosphere down here," Leorio voiced, actually looking serious for once.

"Everyone here is a master in their own right." The blond pointed out.

"Excuse me!" Gon spoke up, wanting to ask questions, "...Wow everyone's all tense." Gon went quiet.

"Hello, please take a number." A green bean man thingy handed out plate with numbers on them. Leorio got 403, Kurapika 404, and Gon 405. The bean turned around and went to leave to hand numbers to other people that were coming in from another entrance, a magical mole creature guiding them. The four continued talking and there was a rush of people entering the room. Kagero noticed that she was the only one without a number tag.

She went to the bean and taped him on his shoulder. He seemed to be surprised. "Um...You forgot my number. I didn't get one."

"Oh, I didn't notice you. When did you come in?" Beans asked.

"With 403, 404, and 405."

"Hmm, Well I already handed out other numbers so you'll be 410. Would that be fine?"

"Yes..." Kagero nodded and put her number on her scarf. She walked back to the group. "We should go rest." She pointed to the wall. The others nodded and walked with her.

When they got to the wall Kagero jumped up to the higher pipe to sit on. She decided to meditate since she thought she wouldn't get the chance to later in the day.

"What is he doing?" Leorio said looking up towards Kagero with a weird look.

"He's examining everyone." Kurapika said as he did the same.

"No, he's meditating, his eyes are closed." Gon seemed to notice what Kagero was actually doing, or going to do. Kurapika was also right, as it was what she was currently doing.

Kagero was taking beep breaths to circulate her breathing and calm herself. While doing that she glanced around the room and saw some people that stood out from the rest. A sliver haired boy, he was drinking canned juice that he just received from a short and plump man. The man looked scared or uneasy for some reason, but worried would better describe it. Then there was a person with pins or tacks in his face, walking around and twitching occasionally. He was not someone to go near—he sent a chill down her spine. She observed some more and felt someone staring at her. Kagero turned to look in that direction and locked eyes with a clown, or jester looking person. She blinked and smiled at him, not wanting to get on anyone's bad side. She couldn't see clearly enough, but he raised an amused eyebrow. She closed her eyes, deciding to take the rest of the time to meditate, though she could still feel the clowns gaze.

"Haven't seen you guys around before," The trio looked at the man who approached them. Kagero continued meditating and ignored the guy. "Yo."

"You can tell that were new?" Gon asked.

"More or less. After all this will be my thirty-fifth attempt."

"T-thirty- _fifth_?!" Gon and Leorio repeated in shock.

"I guess you can say that I'm an exam veteran." This earned a snarky remark from Leorio. Though the man ignored it, brushing off the jap to his pride. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask me."

"Thanks." Gon didn't even think anything like an insult, unlike Leorio.

"My name in Tonpa." Gon and the fat man named Tonpa shook hands.

"I'm Gon!" He looked over to Kurapika and Leorio, "And these two are Kurapika and Leorio," The two nodded. Then Gon pointed to Kagero up on the pipe, "That's Kagero, though we call him Mirage!" He said smiling as usual.

Kagero kept her eyes closed and waved at the guy. This got Leorio and Tonpa to sweat drop. They tried looking up to see her face, but the shadow of her hood covered her eyes, and with the angle they looked up to her from her scarf covered her mouth.

"Hey are there others who have taken the exam a whole bunch of times like you?" Gon asked innocently.

Tonpa started talking about the other 'veterans' in the room; such as Todo the snake charmer, and Bodoro the martial artist. He continued on talking but was interrupted by a loud scream. Everyone in the room looked to the scene. Kagero opened an eye to look at the scene. The man's arms were dissipating into the air, like flower petals. Sure it was gruesome, but it really did look pretty beautiful. There were even sparkles thrown in there.

"Ah, how peculiar. His arms seem to be turning into flower petals." A man in a clown attire with red hair and face paint said with evil intent oozing out of him. "No smoke and mirrors here. Please do apologize when you bump into someone." Then he walked off, leaving the people around him to stare at him in pure terror.

Tonpa and Gon continued talking when Tonpa offered drinks in order to 'commemorate' their 'friendship', please note the sarcasm. That's when she opened her eyes, she saw him giving those drinks to the silver haired boy. It seemed suspicious that he looked worried, so she decided to speak up about the matter, the drinks could possibly be poisoned.

"I wouldn't trust him if I were you." Kagero looked down at Tonpa. She gave him a glare, Tonpa and the group sweat dropped, though Tonpa seemed threatened.

"He's just being nice Mirage!" Leorio yelled and took a can. "As it happened, I was thirsty..." Tonpa gave cans to Kurapika and Gon too.

"Thanks." Gon said cheerfully and Kurapika in his usual demeanor.

"Best of luck to all of us! Cheers!"

"Wait, don't drink that!" Kagero jumped down and grabbed Kurapika's can and knocked Leorio's out of his and caught it. Kurapika was surprised, but thought there must be a reason for her actions. Leorio was about to yell at her, but Tonpa did before he could.

"Hey that's rude!" Tonpa yelled.

She was just about to grab Gon's drink, but the can was already on his lips. She made a _tch_ noise and glared at Tonpa again.

"Bleeeeh." Gon spat out his juice. Tonpa was taken aback. "Tonpa-san, this juice must have expired. It tastes funny!"

"Seriously?! That was close!" That loud voice that boomed in the room was clearly Leorio's.

 _If only he would listen in the first place._

"Mirage, I think we owe you a thanks." Kurapika looked to the cans in Kagero's hands. "But how could you tell that it was poisoned?"

She blinked, "I couldn't," Kurapika, Leorio and Tonpa sweat dropped at her blunt answer, "But he has a bad vibe coming from him. He's not as nice as he seems. Also, you could tell by that malicious smirk he had on when you guys were about to drink the stuff if you didn't notice."

Tonpa laughed nervously, "Sorry about that again. Well... I-I'll see you around." Tonpa walked off quickly, obviously not wanting to be there since he was caught red handed.

"Talkative old man..." Leorio back talked the fatso.

Kagero chucked lightly at Leorio's attitude. "I guess I'll relax some more. You guys should join me, we're probably going to be here for a while." Kagero walked towards the wall and sat against it. The others joined. "Here." She tossed them some energy bars and a bottle of water each. She was glad that they spent the night back in Zaban. She got some supplies and some well needed rest after that long run. "Those'll be good for later."

"Neh neh, Mirage." Gon started after eating his bar.

"Yea?"

"How does your sweater glow?" It seems that he forgot that he had already asked that same question before.

"I don't know exactly, but I think its special pigments in the cloth that react to darkness. For example a firefly. Though I'm not sure if that's correct. It's just a theory. Hmm..." She was thinking of other possibilities, but Leorio cut her train of thought off.

"I think that's the most you have said in a sentence!" Leorio was surprised. Kagero never really talked, she just replied when talked to. Though she did talk on her own, sometimes. He thought that she was weird.

Kagero huffed lightly, showing her annoyance, or embarrassment. Whichever way they took it would be correct in one way or another.

"That could be it, the chemicals in the cloth could be reacting to each other." Kurapika pondered with a hand to his chin.

"My mother must have been an amazing woman," She mused, rocking back on her heels, "She made it."

"Uuah, that's so cool!"

Kagero pat Gon's head and showed a small smile. "I think so too."

She looked to the wall with a confused look, she felt that something would happen soon. Then she felt a small tremor, she jumped up to her feet getting looks from the other three and stared at the wall of the room. Another person across the room was surprised, the man who had been watching her... Hisoka. After she jumped up a weird noise came from the other side of the wall and the wall started rising. The whole room's eyes were on that one wall.

There stood a single man in a deep blue suit. "I apologize for the wait. The entry period for Hunter applicants has ended." There was a slight pause. "The Hunter Exam will now begin!" He explained that if you weren't strong enough you would or could die.

The man started walking and the applicants followed. He picked up his pace to a run. He introduced himself as Satotz, the Phase One examiner. When Satotz said that the first exam has already started the room became tense.

"So we just have to follow him." Kagero stated the obvious.

The group started running.

It had been about a half an hour since they started. Kagero thought that Satotz would increase the pace in the future so she sat down.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Leorio yelled.

"Go on," She waved a hand, "I'll catch up." Kagero was sitting on the ground changing her shoes. Changing them from flat shoes to her rollerblades. She got up and secured them in place.

Back with the group Gon continuously looked behind him to look for Kagero.

"Gon he'll catch up." Kurapika reassured.

"Yeah, his shoe lace probably broke." Leorio tried to cheer Gon up, but he didn't remember that breaking a shoe lace was actually bad luck, thus making Gon all the more worried about her.

Meanwhile, in the very back of the group Kagero was getting used to her rollerblades on the surface of the tunnel. There were no rocks but it was a little bumpy. This would be good for her to get used to moving at high speeds and improving her eyesight as she evaded large bumps in the tunnel. For some reason her clothing was glowing brighter. She hadn't noticed till now but it was probably because of the friction. _I guess it charges up with friction and static_. She thought. _Mother must have been a genius, I hope to find her_! Kagero's motive just grew stronger with the new found respect for her mother. _Hmm, I guess I should catch up, I'm rather far behind..._

About an hour later further down the tunnel were Leorio, Kurapika and Gon. They were worried that Kagero dropped out, but he had run to Zaban so he should be fine with this. _Unless he's still tired from the other day…_ Leorio was caught up in his thoughts when he noticed a kid on a skateboard. He was easy to notice as he had bright silver hair and shockingly blue eyes.

"Hey! Wait up, kid!" Leorio shouted getting a 'hmm' from the boy, which just annoyed him more. "You should show the Hunter Exam some respect!" He was clearly angry, his face looked like a monkeys when he was angry.

"What are you talking about?" The boy acted clueless.

"Why are you using a skateboard? That's cheating!" He pointed to the red striped, yellow skateboard.

"Why?"

" _Why_?! Cause this is an endurance test!" Leorio argued.

"Not it's not!" Gon interrupted. Leorio noticed something glowing coming towards them at a great speed.

"Leorio, Gon's right. He just told us to follow him." Kagero sighed, zooming past them, leaning back on the breaks causing a large cloud of dust to form. Her scarf was flying about, leaving a trail of neon, like a laser light, and her clothes glowing brighter than before. She slowed down and let them catch up.

Leorio felt betrayed when he saw her rollerblades. "Not you too!" He eyed her, noticing that her clothes were glowing, though he absently thought that it was rather cool.

The silver boy slowed down to talk to Gon and Kagero. "Hey, how old are you?"

"Twelve." Gon answered.

"Hmm," He paused and started wavering on his board and kicked his skateboard into the air, spinning, and caught it. "I guess I'll run too."

"WOW!" Gon exclaimed with that huge smile of his. "That was cool!"

"I'm Killua."

"I'm Gon."

Killua then looked to Kagero, "And you?"

"Oh he's Kagero! I call him Mirage though!" Gon introduced Kagero.

"How old are you?" Killua was curious to Kagero's age.

"Thirteen." Kagero's hands came out of her pockets and went behind her head and she leaned backwards a bit. She had gotten used to the weight distribution of her rollerblades and could almost do anything on them now.

"You don't look thirteen...but you're tall."

"That's because of these." Kagero lifted a foot and pointed to her roller-shoes.

"Those are so cool!" The two boys were amazed.

"Where'd you get them?" Killua asked curiously, clearly interested.

"I didn't get them anywhere." The boys stared at her waiting for more. Kagero sighed and continued, "I made them." Gon was incredibly amazed and Killua whistled, but otherwise stayed silent looking down at her shoes. "Your clothing is rather cool too." Killua stopped staring at her shoes and looked at her sweater and scarf that were dimming.

"These are keep sakes from my mother."

"They're rather flashy though, and you look suspicious." Killua looked up to her hood that was completely covering her face with its shadow. Even though they were shorter than her the shadow on her face blacked her face out. No one could see her face other than a shine of blue every now and then.

"Really?" Gon joined in.

"I do?" Kagero smirked slightly with a laugh. "I guess that I have had my hood up the whole time." She grabbed the tip of her hood and tugged it down a bit. "Though, no one has seen my hoodless head as of yet." Kagero added on, making her seem more suspicious. She laughed again at Killua's expression.

"AH!" Gon yelled and pointed to Kagero. She was surprised at the sudden outburst, "That's the first time you laughed!" Kagero was certainly someone who didn't trust other people that easily, secondly she never played with kids her age so she has a hard time opening up. "Also we have never really seen your face. You've never have your hood down!"

"..."

"Something wrong?" Killua asked.

"Nope." Kagero began thinking. It's probably been four hours since the exam started, and it's been about sixty kilometers of running so far—well rollerblading for her. It was lessening her load quite a lot, it was nice.

She looked behind herself to check on Leorio. He's been running out of steam. Leorio was slowing down, he looked like a wreck. Not even a minute later he collapsed. Kagero nudged Gon's shoulder and pointed behind them. The three of them stopped.

"Hey forget him. Let's get going." Kagero grabbed Killua's shoulder and he looked to her. Kagero shook her head.

"Screw this..." Leorio muttered. "I'm gonna become a Hunter!" He bolted from his knelt position on the ground and zoomed passed the three leaving a cloud of dust. "DAMN IT ALL! Eat my dust!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Gon just smiled widely and used his fishing rod to get Leorio's brief case.

"Cool!" Killua burst out with a big grin. "Let me try that later."

"Only if you let me try your skateboard!"

The three of them continued running. Once they caught up with the group, they reached a long stair case.

"What are you gonna do now Mirage?" Gon asked with curiosity. She was on wheels after all.

"Just wait and see." Once they got to the stair case Kagero jumped and started rollerblading up the side of the stair case where there was a smoother rounded surface. It would be hard to rollerblade on, but she didn't mind. She felt like showing off, Killua rubbing off on her.

"Cool!"

"Hey Gon, want to race? The loser has to buy dinner." Killua baited Gon into a bet.

"Sure!"

"Do you mind if I join in?" Kagero got a nod from Killua. Then they picked up there pace. Kagero couldn't go much faster than she was while on her wheels, so she decided to keep her pace until she wanted to speed up later.

Further up the stairs Kagero was still rollerblading and the group was still together. They caught up with Leorio and Kurapika who were in the middle of a conversation.

"See you at the goal, Kurapika."

"Catch you later, old timer." Killua just ticked a nerve.

"I'm not old! I'm a teenager just like you guys!" And in that moment, time froze anime style. Everyone's faces were dumbfounded.

"Eh!"

"No way!"

"He doesn't look _that_ old...Looks like he's in his twenties." Kagero got stares from Kurapika, Gon and Killua. Though Leorio looked insanely happy and went to hug Kagero, but she avoided by speeding up, avoiding the hug and letting him fall, almost tumbling down the stairs. He recovered quickly and got up to run with Kurapika again. He was yelling that Kagero was a 'meanie' and such.

Further up the stairs Killua started talking again, "I'm impressed that you guys can keep up with me." Gon took it as a complement and rubbed the back of his head, but Killua actually just insulted everyone else by saying how slow they were.

Gon brought up the topic about why they wanted to be hunters, Killua explained that he wasn't really interested in becoming a hunter. Gon also explained his reason.

"What about you Kagero?"

"Me? To look for a family member." Kagero looked down to the spiky hair in her peripheral vision, "Same as Gon."

The conversation was cut off when they saw a light at the end of the tunnel. It was far away, but you could see it. Gon and Killua bolted.

Kagero had just passed the main group of people that were running and noticed someone. She caught up to him and went beside him.

"Hey," Kagero got his attention, "Hisoka was it?" Hisoka raised an eyebrow, both at her approaching him and her peculiar shoes. "How'd you do that trick to that man's arms earlier? It was interesting."

Hisoka stared at Kagero. "Name."

She raised an eyebrow, not that he could see it though. "...Kagero."

"It's a trade secret, Kagero~" He said her name in the creepiest of tones but it didn't faze her. This piqued Hisoka's interest. He rarely met people who were not fazed by him and his creepiness.

The light at the end of the tunnel brightened and Kagero's eyes widened. _Crap! The bet!_ She yelled in her mind.

"Well I gotta' go, Bet to win." With that she jumped really high into a flip and changed her shoes to normal and bolted up the stairs. Hisoka just stared at Kagero, eyes slightly widened, he was actually surprised. His mouth did a one eighty, from his normal frown, to an amused smirk.

Kagero ran up the stairs passing everyone else. Satotz stopped at the top of the stairs and started to look behind him. Gon and Killua were just about to pass the finish line when Kagero flashed to the other side before them. Satotz quickly turned his head to Kagero internally surprised about the pure speed shown.

"GOAL!" The two boys yelled, and then turned to look to each other.

"Yay! I win." Gon's hand was in the air in a pose.

"What are you talking about? I was faster..."

"No I was!" Gon shot back. Then Killua did. This went on for a while before they asked Satotz. Satotz stood there surprised staring at Kagero. _Those clothes! It can't be. Leidra?_ Satotz thoughts were interrupted when Gon asked a question.

"Hey, who was faster?"

"I believe that you crossed the finish line simultaneously."

"Oh..."

"But he crossed first." Satotz pointed to Kagero.

"Eeeh, when did you cross?!" Gon and Killua said in tune.

"Right before you guys..." Kagero said sheepishly scratching her head.

"AH!" Gon pointed to Kagero. "Your hood is down!" Just as Gon yelled Kurapika and Leorio made it up the stairs.

"Oh, you're right." Kurapika agreed.

"We haven't seen your face before." Leorio was shocked.

"Your hair colour is interesting," Killua said.

"Like you should talk," Kagero retorted, narrowing her eyes at him and getting a slight pout from Killua.

"It's true though! Is it natural?!" Gon exclaimed.

"Yea."

"Still it's an unusual colour, dark turquoise and aqua? Did you get highlights?" Leorio pestered.

"No."

"And your eyes too, there not contacts are they?"

"N-no." Kagero blushed a little as Leorio go to close.

"But no one has such bright green eyes." He examined her face. "I've never seen green eyes like that, and now that I have a closer look you look feminine..." Kurapika grabbed Leorio's collar and pulled him away.

"Can't you see that you're pestering Mirage?" Kurapika scolded Leorio.

"And _that_ , my friends, is why I wear my hood." Kagero pulled up her hood far down on her head covering her medium spiky hair wig, covering her unusual eye colour with the shade of her hood.

"Wait," Gon reached up to her head and fixed her hood. Her hood wasn't as far down on her head now. "Now we can see your face!" Gon smiled happily.

"Now that I think of it, you're tall for your age." Kurapika pointed out as Leorio was standing beside her again.

"You're right! He's just as tall as Kurapika!" Gon was surprised. Leorio looked to Kagero. He saw that Kagero was just under Kurapika in height.

Kagero sighed, "Like I said before... It's because of these." She pointed down to her shoes. "They had to be made taller to fit the wheels in. If I didn't have these on I'd be a bit taller than Killua."

"Oh."

The happy moment was interrupted by someone's yell. "Don't let them fool you!" Everyone looked to the corner where it came from to see a man come out from it. "Don't fall for it...He's lying to you!" He pointed to Satotz. "He's an imposter!" He spouted nonsense about him being the real examiner. The examinees were wavering. He pulled out an ape that looked like Satotz and explained what it was, accusing Satotz.

Right then and there Kagero flashed in front of the man and turned around to deflect cards that were sent flying her way, she deflected them by hitting the face of the cards, and glared to the source. Gon looked around to not see Kagero anywhere but looked to where Hisoka threw the cards to and saw her. The man had done it to Satotz too, though he caught the cards. Kagero's hood fell down again when she 'flashed' to the 'examiner'. Little did she know, her eyes were glowing slightly, probably from excitement. Like her mother's clothing. But you could feel an immense suppressed power in them. No one person had eyes exactly like these. The man was terrified and could move. His eyes were glued to Kagero's. She then spoke in a deeper threatening voice.

"You sure you want to do this? You could have died from those cards. I'm sure he'll try again if you cause more trouble." She took a good look in his eyes and noticed something. He was an animal. An ape she assumed from the haphazardly hidden tail in his pant leg. "You don't smell human... You smell... like a wild animal." Kagero went behind him and grabbed his arm and threw him into the wetlands forest far in the distance. Then she glared at the ape on the ground. "I would leave now if I was you, or you'll be prey to someone much more threatening." She looked to Hisoka who smirked but continued to look her way. He was impressed by her abilities. But he was more interested in her eyes. He looked at Satotz and broke the silence.

"Then that settles it." Hisoka was shuffling his deck of cards. "You're the real one."

"Examiners are Hunters selected by the committee to perform this duty without pay. Any hunter bearing the title we seek would have been able to block that attack." Hisoka looked to Kagero. "Also a Hunter would have been able to avoid his attack too." He smirked getting the majority of people to shudder.

"I shall take that as a complement. However, should you attack me again, for any reason, I will report you for turning on an examiner and you will be immediately disqualified. Are we clear?"

"Sure." Hisoka replied nonchalantly.

Satotz explained that swindlers swamp was full of deception such as before. "I believe that some of you were fooled into suspecting my identity?" Some people started laughing...Leorio included. "Understand? If you lose sight of me you will never reach the exam's Second Phase. Do bear that in mind." Satotz turned and started walking. "Then let us be on our way, follow me."

With that the dreaded marathon continued...

 **(Omake)**

"Pfft, how would he get poison into a _can_?" Leorio scoffed, picking his drink up off the ground. "That's what I have medicine for anyways." He opened the can and chugged it before Kagero could stop him.

"Leorio!" Kagero shouted.

"Oh psh, I'll be fine!" He waved her off.

"That stupid imbecile..." she mumbled, and by the looks of it Kurapika agreed with her.

Soon after Leorio regretted his decision and ran in the opposite direction, towards the elevator, yelling, "It's gonna explode!"

 _Man he doesn't listen does he?_ Kagero and Kurapika thought.

 **(Omake End)**


	5. Chapter 5

Running through the marsh, Kagero noticed the fog getting denser and looked around to survey her surroundings. She had to be careful of any foreign objects on the ground and such. Mushrooms and suspicious looking patches of grass were a given. Also something was annoying her, or rather _someone_.

 _You can clearly hear Leorio's grunting noises while he runs. He really has to learn to be more discrete_. Kagero thought, frowning slightly.

She tapped Gon's shoulder to get his attention, "The fog's getting thicker..." Kagero mumbled to him.

"You're right!" Gon looked around to see that he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of himself.

"There's also an ominous atmosphere coming from that direction." Kagero nodded her head to the direction where it was coming from. It led to Hisoka and the people surrounding him. It was obvious that they were planning to take him out in the fog. They weren't exactly being discreet about the hateful glares they were sending him. They didn't think that Hisoka was suitable to be a hunter even though he was significantly stronger than all of them combined. Even Kagero thought he was stronger. Sure she had been trained since a young age, but she doubted she was stronger than him. Her body was built for speed, not power, though she could still break someone's bone if she put enough momentum into it.

"Yea, we should move up." Killua came in after looking behind him. He could feel the bloodlust coming from Hisoka.

"We don't want to lose sight of the examiner" Gon piped up.

"Staying close to Hisoka is dangerous. I can smell it in the air." She could sense something bad about him at the time, but she couldn't place what it was. She hadn't really felt blood lust before, other than bears and wolves, and the Kiriko from the mountain.

"Smell? I don't smell anything." Gon seriously tried to smell for something in the air. Though all he got was sweat, dirt and various other things. "Leorio, Kurapika! Killua and Mirage say we should move up!" He shouted, bringing some attention to their group of three. Kagero noticed Killua tense up.

 _Man, can't Gon feel the tension in the air?_

"MORON!" Leorio yelled suddenly and the people around him flinched—one even tripped—at the sheer volume. Kurapika had enough forewarning to predict it and covered his ears. There was a pause, as if he was talking a deep breath in to yell even more, "If I had enough strength I'd already be there!" Even at the distance they were at Leorio's voice boomed throughout the marsh.

"Don't worry about us! Go on ahead!" Kurapika shouted, reassuring them. If those two got into any trouble surely Kurapika would be able to think of something, being the smarty pants that he was.

Gon pouted. "Ehhh"

"Let's go Gon, Kagero." Killua started running faster, Kagero followed wordlessly. She was trying to keep her breathing steady as to not waste energy.

"Ah! Wait!" Gon ran to catch up with the two.

The three were lucky they moved up in time, otherwise they would have gotten caught up in a bloodbath involving massive turtles and strawberries. Eh, it's the Hunter exam, crazy stuff man. You must expect the unexpected.

"I hear people screaming all around us." Gon's eyes were darting to each place he heard the screams come from. It was rather unnerving, the fog was unnaturally thick and they could feel the heavy moisture on their skin so you caught each breeze that went by.

"Just stay on your guard," Killua retorted. He was worried that Gon wasn't that alert at the time, well... because... Gon was Gon. Though back when he tracked the Kiriko he showed a high alertness—or so Kurapika told her.

"I wonder if Leorio and Kurapika are okay..." Gon looked behind himself and slowed to a stop, not likely for a breather, but because he was worried. Killua did the same, not wanting to lose Gon in the vast marsh. Then Killua looked alarmed, something was wrong. Very wrong. He felt vibrations from the ground beneath them. _Was it an earthquake?_ Gon seemed to notice it too.

Killua's eyes widened as the ground below started to crumble, and was about to yell to Gon to move before the ground gave way beneath them.

"...WATCH OUT!" Kagero yelled for the first time in Killua's presence, her voice cracked to a high pitch, she bolted to try and push them out of the way. The shout startled the boys but it was too late, a giant frog came out of the ground and swallowed both Killua and Gon. Kagero immediately went to attack the frog no hesitation to harm the beast. They were her first friends, she wouldn't lose them. She could tell that her offence hurt the frog but it just brushed it off, walking away happily with its recent meal. She contemplated cutting it but decided against it, not wanting to accidentally harm Killua or Gon. She has an eureka moment and ran in front of the frog, surprising it by forcibly opening its mouth, standing on its lips hold it open.

"Gon, Killua! I'm holding its mouth open, can you two climb up?!" Kagero yelled into the frog. She got a muffled noise in return, and a few seconds later the boys came out.

"Thanks Kagero..." Killua said climbing up its throat and pulling Gon up. Killua frowned and grimaced at the slime on him, that would be _very_ hard to get out. The frog escaped—or rather very slowly walked away from the three, not wanting anything to do with them anymore after what it just went through.

Gon slipped and slid a little because of the slick slime. He also made a face, a much more animated one compared to Killua's as he freaked out over the gross bodily fluid. "Eeeewwww." He took off his shirt and swung it in a circle to get the stuff off.

"Gon! Watch where you fling that stuff! Gross!" Kagero made a noise and cringed when a large slop of it hit her cheek. "Eww." She wiped her face slowly and whipped her hand to get the stuff off.

"Eheheh, sorry." He scratched his neck absently. "OH! Thanks a bunch! We would have been goners if you didn't save us!"

"I could have gotten out myself..." Killua's proud voice didn't match the sulk on his face.

"Oh?" Kagero crossed her arms and smirked at Killua.

"With what?" Gon was curious.

"This." He pulled out one of the canned drinks Tonpa gave him. Gon absently looked towards the direction where they just came from.

"Though wouldn't you rather _not_ being covered in frog vomit?" Killua and Gon nodded, completely agreeing with Kagero's opinion on Killua's plan.

"Hmmm… I'm still worried about Leorio and Kurapika." Gon looked worried.

"Forget about them. Let's get a move on." Killua was as cold hearted as he usually was. He just wanted to finish the phase as fast as he could.

"Well I wouldn't say _forget_ ," she ran with Killua. "I'd rather say trust." She waved to Gon behind her back, telling to go if he wanted to. She wouldn't be able to stop him either way.

Not even a minute passed and Killua noticed that Gon wasn't there. Kagero's conversation distracted him from his observations of the area that he didn't notice that Gon wasn't there.

"He left to go help Kurapika and Leorio." Kagero answered the question he was about to ask. "Hmm... Though I think I should go to help too. If he runs into Hisoka he won't be able to handle it. He would at least need some backup." Kagero turned and ran towards the direction Gon ran to find a clearing.

"Oi! Kagero!" Killua sighed when she was already out of sight. "Man, they're both such a handful."

Running through the marsh, she decided that it would be better to jump through the trees. She didn't want anything to happen again like the frog incident, but there were also weird mushrooms everywhere, so the trees were the safest option she had at the moment.

Right out of nowhere there was a high pitched shriek next to her. She tensed up—almost screaming in fright herself after being startled—and lost her footing, almost falling out of the tree. If she didn't grab the branch that she had... Well, she would have been a carnivorous Venus Flytraps lunch. She looked to the bird and shot the annoying thing a death glare but it just screamed at her again. Her right ear was ringing because it was so loud and right next to her. _Stupid bird. Why does it sound like a humans scream. Is it like a parrot?_ She thought as she and the bird had a stare down. Man, the birds screams were like the classic horror movie screams. Then the bird made a high pitched shrill noise, sending a chill down her spine. She really needed to kill that bird, it was following her.

Getting a move on, she saw the clearing. She looked through the leaves or the trees. Her breath hitched, and she went wide eyed before settling down into a quiet rage. If anyone could see her face, chills would go down their spines. Her face was emotionless other than her eyebrows that were knit down in fury. Though her eyes, they had no light in them. Dull and deadly.

The source was Hisoka, who was holding Gon by the neck. By his expression she could clearly see that he was enjoying Gon's pain while he struggled, turning blue from oxygen deprivation. Leorio was sprawled on the ground with a large swollen black eye and multiple bruises, certainly out for the count. Other than that he seemed fine.

After assessing the situation she jumped out of the trees to appear in front of Hisoka and Gon. Gon looked over to her, eyes wide in fear. He looked scared and surprised by her appearance. He tried to speak to warn her, to tell her to _run away_ , worried what she would end up in the same positon as him—but his voice was too hoarse to. "Ka-ge…."

Hisoka just glanced to the side, amused.

"Put. Him. _Down_." Kagero's tone was dark. You couldn't tell by her body language, but her voice said it all. She was _pissed_ off. Nobody liked an angry Kagero... Oh they wouldn't—though Hisoka was different. She couldn't even remember the last time she was so angry, or rather the last time she was _looking_ to maim someone. Kagero just felt an overwhelming need to beat the man who was harming her friend to a bloody pulp.

"And If I don't?" Hisoka questioned with a smirk, gripping Gon's neck harder and he choked, squirming to get air. The air around Kagero got darker. Hisoka's eyebrows raised a notch, "Oh?"

Kagero propelled herself into the air, launching into a fast flip flinging her leg out to do a drop kick to Hisoka's arm, forcing it to bend from his elbow. His grip loosened and she grabbed his wrist, prying it of Gon's throat. He fell to the ground before she could catch him.

Hisoka was surprised—surprised by the intensity and ferocity that she attacked him with. Her movement was fast, though he thought it could be faster with further training. The anger fueled her as her speed was toned up a few notches. Kagero could feel herself in the zone. The warm feeling that she could sometimes harness flowed around her body, strengthening her body.

"Ooh, not bad." He smiled even wider. Kagero was already in motion for when he reappeared behind her, an after image still in front of her. She didn't know how but she could sense when he moved behind her. She moved instantaneously as he disappeared and grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back.

"Don't try anything funny." No pun intended—she would have laughed at that if the situation was different. She glared at Hisoka with all her hatred at the moment. He turned his head to see her eyes from the shade of her hood glowing slightly. He found this amusing. Highly amusing.

 _I think I just found a new toy. Mmmm._

"I surrender." He raised his hands, somehow getting his arm out from her grip. By now Gon was just getting up from the ground, but he saw everything and was surprised by Kagero's strength. She was almost on par with Hisoka in ability, but somehow she lacked something compared to him.

"Gon, are you okay?" Kagero bent down to help him up.

"Y-yea." He coughed, his throat raw, and dusted off his shorts.

Hisoka walked up to Gon. Gon tensed along with Kagero. "Do not fear. I will not kill you or your friends." He smirked and looked to Kagero. "You all pass." He laughed creepily. His laughter was cut off when he got a call from a walkie-talkie, his voice and demeanor went from creepy to serious while talking with the unknown caller. While Hisoka was talking he tossed Leorio over his shoulder like a rag doll.

"You can find your way back, right?" He asked, hanging up after ending the call. Gon nodded. Then Hisoka looked over to Kagero.

"I'll be fine." She snapped a reply. Hisoka walked off after getting Kagero's response. She took multiple deep breaths before she calmed down. Though she was still mad at what Hisoka did to Gon and Leorio, though she would try not to hold a grudge.

"Gon! Are you alright?" Kurapika came running from the forest into the clearing. He checked the two over before they continued to their destination.

Running down the pathway, Gon was currently being a tracking dog and was following Leorio's cologne. How he did it? They had no clue.

"Hey Mirage, how did you get Hisoka to let go of Gon like that?" Kurapika questioned.

"...I just kicked his arm and made it buckle," she stretched, "No biggie." Kurapika and Gon were both surprised. Well of course they were, she fought Hisoka head on and survived.

"Neh, what did Hisoka mean when he said that we passed?"

"He was acting as the judge in his own way, he proved us worthy of passing and so he didn't kill us." Kurapika explained to Gon. "Perhaps he sensed that you were kindred spirits. It's quite common that those possessing special talents are drawn to others with unique gifts. Perhaps Hisoka's experience told him that you had the skill and potential to become hunters."

 _He says perhaps a lot..._

" _Perhaps_ he thought killing us would be a waste." Kagero added in teasing Kurapika a bit, "Though if he ever tried again..." An evil chuckle came from her mouth, getting them to sweat drop and also sending a chill down their spines. She would have sworn to grant him pain. In the future, she wasn't strong enough at the moment.

"Hmm…" The two boys looked to Kagero, waiting for her to say something. Usually when someone 'hmmed' they wanted to voice something, "What do you think Killua's doing? Do you think he made it to the meeting place?"

"He's probably made it there already."

"Yeah! And he would be looking for us!"

"He might be thinking ' _hey, why's Hisoka carrying Leorio_?'"

They all shared a laugh before it quieted down for the rest of the way. After a good ten minutes they reached the sight and many applicants looked as if they were about to pass out.

"Looks like we made it in time." Kurapika said as he looked around for Leorio.

"Oh, he's over there," Kagero pointed and walked over to a tree. She looked behind her to see if they were coming when she saw Hisoka. Kagero gave a glare towards Hisoka, she was still mad about that incident in the clearing.

"What are you glaring at Mirage?" Kurapika and Gon asked.

"Hisoka... I'm still mad at him." She huffed and looked away.

"Hmm," Gon looked around. "I don't see him." Gon followed Kagero who was beckoning him to follow.

"Yo, Leorio." Kagero went up beside him and pat him lightly on the head before climbing up the large tree he was leaning on. Kurapika raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was doing that.

Leorio looked up from his daze, "Man that stings...Why am I all beat up?"

"Huh?" Did he not remember what just happened?

"My memory is kinda hazy." Leorio seemed groggy.

Kurapika side commented to Gon. "We probably shouldn't tell him what happened." Gon laughed lightly and was called by someone.

"Gon!" That someone walked up to them, hands in pockets and lax atmosphere.

"Killua!"

"I can't believe you actually got here... I thought you two were goners." Killua taunted. "Wait… where's Kagero? Don't tell me—did he get killed?"

"Gon tracked Leorio's cologne." Kagero poked out of the all the leaves so they could see her. She was standing on a nick in the tree and leaning away from the tree, holding onto a branch so she wouldn't fall. "And Killua, I take that offensively. Do you _doubt_ me?"

"You guys definitely are weird..." Killua was interrupted by Satotz's voice.

"Excellent work, everyone. Phase two will occur here, in the Biska Forest Park. So, I shall take my leave." He started jogging away in his usual animalistic way, those long strides were definitely not normal by any means.

"See ya later Satotz!" Kagero waved and jumped down from the tree, stumbling from the height. Satotz smiled—or she thought he did—at her and continued his journey all the way back to Zaban city. Or so they thought.

The doors started to open and all applicants turned to the two people on the inside.

"Will all applicants who passes the first phase please enter? I'm Menchi, the Second Phase Examiner."

Another examiner started talking, the huge man behind her—he was quite hard to _not_ notice. "And I'm Buhara, the other examiner." There was a silence until there was a loud growling noise. Buhara looked uncomfortable... Was that his stomach?

"You must be hungry." Menchi looked at the applicants, "There you have it. Phase two will involve... Cooking!" The majority of the applicants were in complete and utter shock. You can easily tell what was going through their minds, _'Cooking? Were here to take the Hunter Exam! Don't look down on us!_ ' That type of thing.

One of the applicants decided to be brave—or stupid, it depended on the way you looked at it—and picked a fight with the examiners. He laughed at their hunter status, it got so far that Buhara had to punch the sumo wrestler to the outside of the wall, slamming against one of the pillars. It crumbled and he fell to the ground. Everyone went quiet and they took the chance to explain the phase.

"The required ingredient is pork. You're free to use any meat from any species of Biska Forest pigs." Menchi came in and explained how the food would be judged. Buhara used his stomach as a gong and signaled the start of the phase. Everyone ran out to get the pigs.

Kagero simply stood there and went to her cooking station. The only thing there was an old fashioned tool you used to cook meat, a rotary. She then looked to the counter and looked at the supply they had set out.

"The phase already started." The blue haired woman said.

Kagero looked up to them, "Oh, I know. Thanks though." With that Kagero ran off leaving a surprised Menchi, Buhara and Satotz who was in the shadows of a tree.

Kagero ran through the forest as fast as she could and found a heard of pigs, she hid her presence and sneaked around to one and gave it a lethal blow to its head. She picked up the pig with some struggle and looked up to see Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio slide down a hill. She gave a salute holding the pig up with the other single arm and jumped over them and ran off, leaving the group astonished. Thank goodness they came along. If they didn't she would have taken the long way back.

Kagero was the first to get back and she put the pig on the roaster, she cut out the eyes and gutted the pig. Taking the blood of the pig and put it in a bowl, she added sugar and spices to it and let it sit aside. The judges simply watched her. She grabbed the lettuce and tomato, but stopped. If she got the garnish ready now the lettuce would get soggy. So she would wait until her pig's almost done. She turned her burner on medium; she knew that she had enough time to cook it all the way through with how fast she caught the pig. She wiped sweat from her forehead. The hunter's exam was harsh, though she had confidence in her cooking. After all, she was the one that had to prepare the meals at home after hunting.

She paused when she heard a huge noise from the forest. "About time," She stretched, popping some joints and went back to turning the pig. When the applicants came back they simply put there pig on the stick, put it to full heat and rotated away. Kagero frowned. There would be a lot of wasted pig by the way they were going. They were already burning the skin and it smelt horrible.

"Woah, you're almost done already!" Gon said surprised."...Mirage?" No answer. Kagero had her headphones in as she was working, so she couldn't hear him.

"He's so focused." Leorio commented, impressed by her concentration. He just didn't notice the headphones.

Kagero was almost done and bunch of applicants had gotten judged already with their charred pigs—all getting failing grades. Kagero lathered the sauce she made on the outside of the pig and let it soak in for a few seconds on the heat. She turned off the burner and took the pig off of the stick to set it on the counter. She cut equal thick slices and charred a little on the burner like a steak, the juice was now sealed in the meat. She put a single slice on one plate for Menchi since it seemed like she wouldn't eat the whole damn pig.

She got the lettuce and tomato out of the fridge and reached to grab a knife from the holder on the countertop. She noticed the others looking at her. She smirked and grabbed the knife, skillfully twirling it around for a second before cutting the lettuce into thin strips along with cutting chunky tomatoes.

Leorio's complexion paled a bit at the way she played with the knife. It was scary.

She placed the paper-thin lettuce and tomato on the side and put some more sauce on the steak. She put the rest of the lettuce inside the pig. Kagero grabbed the plate and the pig and walked up the stairs.

"Last applicant," Menchi declared. She was feeling sick after trying some of the applicant's food. That's why she started failing people from what she could _see_ that was wrong rather than tasting.

Kagero put the plate in front of Menchi and gave Buhara the pig. Buhara ate it in one bite. Wow much.

"This is… actually quite well done. Nice presentation..." Menchi cut the steak and the juices flowed out. She examined how well done the pig was and reluctantly took a bite. She looked happy. It wasn't up to her standard, but certainly much better than the others. "You Pass!"

"What! That's the first person to pass!" An applicant complained.

"Yes, and the rest of you fail."

"Isn't that a bit unfair?" Kagero questioned quietly. "I know Hisoka's on your nerves but that's nothing to fail everyone for." Since she still hadn't forgiven the clown, she had been keeping an eye on him. He seemed to be challenging Menchi constantly, though at least he wasn't going after them at the moment.

Menchi was speechless. _He could tell? His perception's impressive!_ Menchi recovered and stated her reason. "All the applicants simply put the pig over a flame. There was no effort to make it pleasurable. Almost all of the pigs were charred on the outside but raw on the inside, you can die from eating raw meat." Menchi explained that Hunters need to be creative put simply.

There was a loud noise overhead and a huge blimp came into view. A screeching noise came through a speaker on the blimp before a voice came on through a megaphone. "That said it would be excessive to fail every single applicant."

"That's the symbol of the Hunters Association!" A random applicant stated the obvious.

A person jumped from the blimp and landed in the center of the area. There was a huge dust cloud and the ground caved in around him. When the dust started to clear you could see the figure of an older man. He was wearing a type of kimono and had a weird hairstyle with excessively long eyebrows and a long beard with a grey tip to it. To top that weirdness off he had large earlobes with piercings. He didn't seem like a naturally serious man.

"He's in charge of the Hunter Exam...Chairman Netero." Menchi explained who the person was.

"Well, I work behind the scenes. I only take action when there's an issue, like now. So, Menchi-kun. You failed all of the applicants because you disapproved of their reluctance to try new things?"

"No sir... I lost my cool when one of the candidates insulted Gourmet Hunters. And I made the exam harder than necessary."

"In other words, you're aware that this exam was unacceptable."

"Yes, sir. When cooking is involved, I lose control."

"Excuse me..." Kagero intervened getting Menchi and Netero to look at her. She was standing right beside them since Menchi was still talking to her before Netero joined the party. "She didn't fail _everyone_..." Everyone's eyes were now on Kagero and she was feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Menchi-kun didn't fail you?" Netero asked.

"No Sir."

Netero looked to Menchi, with an amused eyebrow, "Why did you only pass this young lad here?" He eyed Kagero.

"For one, it was actually cooked _properly_." Menchi emphasized 'properly', "He actually put effort to make the food taste good, and tried new things, like using the pig's blood, and passed my expectations. That's the reason I passed him."

"I know that Menchi-san failed everyone else. I can see why... no offense." She added after getting hateful looks, "But there should be a re-examination."

"What about it Menchi-kun?" Netero went along with the re-examination idea. "But you will have to participate in the new test. Is that acceptable?"

Menchi was thinking before she had a eureka moment, "Then the new challenge will be… boiled eggs! Chairman, can you take up to _that_ mountain in your airship?"

"Hmm, I see what you're doing. Certainly, I can."

The airship arrived at the mountain—Mt. Split-in-Half was its name. Kagero took the time to meditate so she could regain some energy while they were flying to their destination. The others wanted to talk to her but decided to leave her alone when they saw her meditating or napping. They couldn't tell—but secretly she actually fell asleep.

Everyone was now looking over the edge of the cliff. Huh, exciting. _It sure lives up to its name._

"Now, everyone...Look down there." There was what seemed to be a web in the crevice of the gorge. "A Spider Eagle's web."

"So they make their webs there!" Gon peeked over the edge, that's when an unexpected updraft of air came up. Some contestants cringed and either walked away or fell backwards in fright. The few that were already scared were praying that they didn't have to do what they thought that they would have to do.

Menchi explained that the eggs were hanging from the web and that we simply had to get them and get back up. Menchi did a demonstration. She jumped down and grabbed the web. She let go and grabbed an egg and fell, but was lifted by the updraft that came soon after.

"There. Now I just need to boil the egg." Menchi said simply, as if what she had just done was normal.

"No reasonable person would jump down there." A contestant was panicking. It was exactly what he feared that he would have to do.

"I've been waiting for this!" Gon jumped off excitedly with the others. Kagero didn't jump off though after all she already passed, but she was hungry and really wanted to try this so called heavenly egg. Everyone else followed. Menchi was panicking because she didn't have the chance to explain how to get the eggs.

Everyone grabbed on to the web and some people mindlessly let got and fell to their deaths. Leorio wanted to jump off, eager to get an egg, but Gon yelled "Don't!" Every single person went quiet, sensing that Gon knew the correct timing to get them out alive. Though the web's strands started to break and people chickened out and fell thinking that they would fall anyways. The web was about to snap when Gon said "Now!" and everybody let go. Kagero was surprised that they all trusted Gon's judgement.

"Neh, Mirage why didn't you jump?" Gon asked.

"I was wondering too." Killua added.

Kagero sighed, "You know... I _did_ already pass... Also, I'm too heavy. The web would have broken right away with me and everyone on there. It already broke enough with you guys.

Menchi over heard this and walked over. "What do you mean?"

"I have training weights and they could easily break the web with all the other people on it." Menchi and the group let out an 'Ah.' "So I'll be going down now."

"Didn't you say you already passed?" Leorio asked, confused.

"…I want to eat an egg..." She said simply, getting some people that were eavesdropping to anime fall.

"But the up draft wouldn't be able to lift you up all the way now would it?" Kurapika was worried.

"Don't worry." Kagero grinned to herself and walked towards the edge of the ravine. "I have a plan." A few other people walked over too, wanting to watch what she would do; Hisoka, the creepy pin guy, as she called him, Menchi, Hanzo, Netero and the gang.

She looked down and looked to see which of the lower webbings would be able to hold her. When she chose one Kagero looked beside her to the group and gave a nod, she jumped. She grabbed the first web, bending her arms to lessen the strain on the web. Then let go down to the next one, then the next and she reached the last web with the eggs on it. If she just jumped down and grabbed the last web the web would have snapped from the shock and she would have fallen. So she jumped down slowly to gradually lessen the impact. She slid herself down one of the lines connected to a bunch of eggs and grabbed one with one hand, slipping it into her hood, secured in by her scarf and held the other. Her other hand was on the string keeping her from falling. Kagero pulled herself up and jumped onto the web to walk across the tightrope with ease—she was proud of her balance. The people above were curious of what she would do. Then she jumped towards the wall of the ravine and propelled herself off of it successfully getting her up to the next web. Once she reached the top web Kagero noticed that the same method would not help her here. There was way too much of a gap to wall jump her way up to the ledge. She thought of an idea, and walked to the middle of the web.

"What are you doing Kagero?! We're over here!" Leorio yelled, flailing his arms around and thus annoying the people beside him. Kagero ignored him—she needed to focus on the task at hand.

She took a deep breath in, sensing that the breeze would be coming soon and bolted across the web to the opposite side the ravine. Kagero jumped and was about to crash into the wall, Leorio cringed for impact; but she wall-jumped off the wall as hard as she could and flew across half of the ravine. Then, the updraft came. The force from her jump and the updraft gave her the distance she needed to get across with plenty of distance to spare. She landed effortlessly leaving a dent in the ground like Netero from before. She didn't remember to distribute her weight properly.

Gon, and Killua ran to her. Kurapika and Leorio followed, including the other people who were watching closely.

"That was amazing!" Gon ran up and hugged her. "I'm glad you didn't fall!" Kagero was flustered by the sudden hug. She lifted her arms up on impact so the eggs wouldn't get damaged. Her hood fell down, and so did the egg in her hood. Her reflexes caught the egg before it got anywhere close to the ground. The people around her were the only ones to see her face. The majority of them were staring at her since throughout the whole exam they weren't able to see her face. Though people like Hisoka didn't pay attention. Just the applicants that didn't really have a significance stared.

"What are you guys looking at?" Kagero didn't even notice that her hood was down. Then she felt a breeze and her hair started moving. "..." She tried to put her hood back up but Gon pestered her that she should keep it down. She didn't like the stares, but she liked the breeze.

"Why do you have two eggs Mirage?" Kurapika asked. "I didn't see you grab the other in the first place."

"I put one in my hood." She scratched her head. "I thought that the people who didn't jump would like to try some." She smiled sheepishly. The others went quiet. "...What?"

"N-nothing... We're still getting used to you... you know... opening up..." Leorio blushed slightly, "Never thought you would be so, um... _kind_." Kagero blushed furiously.

"I'm glad you're opening up!" Gon was extremely happy. "You should smile more!" She did smile, but they just couldn't see it because of her scarf and hoof. Kagero got awkward from the further embarrassment, furious blush still engaged. The others burst out laughing. Killua included.

"You too Killua!" Then it was Killua's turn to blush, also because of Gon.

"Everyone time to boil the eggs!" Menchi yelled, getting everyone's attention. Gon, Leorio and Kurapika left them. Kagero and Killua looked to each other and smiled timidly. The reason why? The bringers of the awkwardness had left.

There was a hulking cauldron, the eggs were put in and there was about a fifteen minute wait. Kagero absently thought of Macbeth and the witches because of the huge cauldron. She decided to walk around while waiting. She bumped into Hisoka.

"Nice job, boya." He walked off.

 _Well...That was, weird..._ Kagero blinked as she plopped herself on the ground. She sprawled out, and enjoyed the breeze. The others joined her. It was so peaceful. Killua ended up staring at Kagero, mainly because of her unique hair and eye colour. The peacefulness was interrupted when Menchi called everyone.

People lined up anxious to get there eggs. Kagero was last in line so she could grab her second egg. Everyone started eating; they were surprised by how good it was. Gon even shared his with someone else. Kagero didn't eat hers yet, she wanted to let the others have her second egg. After she was done, almost everyone had finished their eggs.

"You didn't eat your egg yet?" Killua walked up to Kagero.

"I was just about to eat it. It's still warm." She held it up to her face effectively warming her cheek up. She hadn't even peeled the shell off yet.

"Mirage! It's time to go!" Gon yelled from the doorway of the airship. "Killua too! Come on!" He shivered, "It's cold!"

 **(Omake)**

Hisoka was jogging to the area for the next phase, Leorio in tow over his shoulder. He was relishing in his thoughts while remembering what just happened in the clearing.

 _Oh, Gon-kun has so much potential, but there's also Kagero-kun. He doesn't know what he was using, if he knew how to use it…_ Hisoka groaned, "I don't know who to pick!" Then he thought of something, "Well why not _both_?"

If anyone else was nearby—or if Leorio was awake—they would have been frozen to the core in terror from the pedophilic expression he had on his face.

 **(Omake End)**


	6. Chapter 6

The second phase was officially over and everyone gathered on to the airship that was flying in the night towards the third phase's site. Netero decided to introduce himself to the forty-three remaining applicants whom were gathered in the front room of the airship. The green bean was beside him too, turns out that he was the Chairman's secretary. Kagero was eating her egg during the gathering. It was _so_ good. Now she wished that she would have kept the second egg she got.

"Originally, I'd planned to make my appearance during the exam's final phase, but as I'm already here..." He paused and looked around the room, looking amused, "I'm loving this tension in the air!" Killua and Kagero ended up yawning at the same time, they grinned to each other when they made Gon yawn also. Kagero watched with fascination that their yawns caused a ripple effect, causing another person to yawn and another, and so on. It was quite entertaining. "So I think I'll stick around for the rest for the trip." Netero laughed.

His secretary Beans took over and explained a few things, "We are scheduled to arrive at our destination tomorrow morning, at eight AM. You'll find dinner waiting in the dining hall. You are also welcome to get some rest. In other words, you're free to do as you please until you are contacted."

"Okay, Gon, Kagero! Let's explore the airship!" Killua still had plenty of energy to spare.

"Yeah!" Gon happily accepted the offer.

"Sure, sounds fun." Then the boys ran off and Kagero followed.

Kagero overheard Leorio say "How can they have so much energy? I'm hitting the sack." Kagero internally laughed at Leorio, he would have punched her if she did aloud. While Kagero, Gon and Killua were exploring, the previous examiners were having dinner and were talking amongst themselves in an employee's only dining room.

• • • • • •

"Hey, how many applicants do you expect to make it?" Menchi asked Buhara and Satotz.

"You mean the exam?"

"Yep. This year we have quite an impressive group—even though I did fail all but one of them at one point."

"But doesn't it depend on what the upcoming phases consist of?"

"That's true... But didn't you notice it? One of them had this whole aura thing going on." She took a bite of her food. "What do you think, Satotz?"

"Oh, yes. I like the rookies this year." He stopped eating to talk.

"Ha! So you agree?" Menchi was happy. "I think number two-ninety-four has a good shot." (Hanzo)

"I'm partial to number ninety-nine" (Killua)

"He looks like a selfish, spoiled brat." She turned to Buhara. "What do you think, Buhara?"

"Well… He isn't a rookie, but number forty-four is the one I favor." (Hisoka) "I'm sure you noticed but when one of the applicants was on a fit it was number forty-four who was really on the verge of killing someone."

"I did notice that, of course. He could barely restrain himself from tearing off our heads. But he was that way since he laid eyes on us."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's the real reason I was so edgy. He kept challenging me."

They kept talking about Hisoka when Menchi remembered something.

"But you know what," She caught Satotz's and Buhara's attention. "Number four-ten really catches my eye. I'm sure we all have our eyes on him." (Kagero)

"Yea." Buhara and Satotz both agreed.

"What really surprised me was his perception." This raised Satotz eyebrow. "He noticed that I was edgy because of number forty-four, and it seems that he isn't fazed by him." She took a sip of her drink. "His physical ability is also quite astounding."

"I've seen hints of _that_ in the first phase." Satotz commented. Menchi and Buhara's mouths were open in shock.

• • • • • •

"I don't think going in there's a good idea."

"Oh come on! It'll be fun!" Killua nudged Kagero to go in the kitchen with them. After exploring around they were kicked out by one of the chefs, though not without taking some food first. Each of them had a large thing of meat on a bone. Kagero had to wonder what kind of animal it was from.

"See I told yo–"

"Wow, awesome!" Killua ran to the window and pressed his face against the glass. "Look, Gon!"

"Wait what?" Gon ran over. "Woah! It's like the ground is covered in jewels!" The two boys faces were plastered to the glass, Kagero sat down on a bench by the window and stared out of it. She huffed and pouted. She was cut off from what she was saying, though the view made up for it.

"Nee, Killua. Where are your mom and dad?" Gon asked out of the blue.

"Hmm, they're alive…" a pause, "probably." It was clearly added on as an afterthought. HE didn't seem to care that much about his family.

"What do you mean?" Gon asked taking a bite of his meat.

"They're assassins."

"Huh? Both of them?" Gon was surprised, his mouth ajar.

Kagero lifted Gon's chin so his mouth closed. "That's cool, so you're an assassin too, huh?" Kagero asked nonchalantly—though it was a rhetorical question. She noticed during the first exam that when Killua walked he made no noise, so she just sort of assumed it was something of the sort. Plus there was also Hanzo who she noticed didn't even hide his ninja status. It was a strange world, so she was trying to get used to the absurd things that this world had to offer.

"That's your first reaction?" Killua laughed. "You two really are a riot!"

"Huh?"

"You two are the first people who have ever responded seriously."

"Well, you're telling the truth." Kagero said seriously as she finished her food.

"What makes you think that?" Killua asked Kagero.

"Well you aren't lying... Are you?" She would have to reassess her ability to judge character if she was wrong.

"That's weird... People only like me because they can't tell if I'm serious or not."

Gon and Kagero both 'hmmed'.

Killua started talking about how he was indeed an assassin as Kagero said, and explained about his position in his family. His family snapped when he said he didn't want to be an assassin. In the end... there was a fight, Killua stabbed his mother in the face and his brother in the side, and ran away from home.

The three continued talking when Netero over heard them and decided to pull a prank, he let out a surge of murderous intent and vanished to the other side of the hallway. The two boys reacted a few seconds after it was released, though Kagero looked right to the area where Netero moved to. She narrowed her eyes and disappeared to reappear behind Netero. Though she didn't know it was

"Something wrong?" He looked behind him to see Kagero. She shook her head, sighed and relaxed. Netero was playing around with them.

"Netero-san... Did you see someone coming from over there?" Gon pointed in the direction where the intent came from.

Netero replied in an irritating way. "No~"

Kagero walked back to the boys. "Nice trick Netero-san."

"Netero's fine."

"You're quite fast." Killua said, "What do you want? You don't have to do anything till the last phase, right?" Killua was annoyed.

"No need to be so unkind. I got bored and was looking for some companions." Kagero raised an eyebrow, ' _Companions_?'

"Let's go, Gon, Kagero."

"Wait a moment. Would you care to play a game with me?"

"A game?"

"If you are able to defeat me, I shall let you be hunters!" He taunted them into playing.

"Really? I'll play!" Gon piped.

Killua was hoaxed into playing the game by Netero and Kagero followed, amused by the whole situation. Netero lead the three into a room that had port windows and padded walls, it was clearly a type of training room. Netero stood in the middle of the room bouncing a ball.

"Now, I'll go over the rules of the game." He balanced the ball on his finger. "If you can take this ball from me, before the airship reaches its destination, you win. Well, that gives you nine hours." He spun the ball on his fingertip. "You're free to attack me however you'd like. I won't touch you."

"Eh, but that's no fair. You can't call that a game."

"Why don't you give it a try first?" Netero taunted.

"We just have to take the ball?" Killua was stoic, not believing him.

"Yeah."

"Then I'll go first."

Killua started walking around the room slowly. While he was walking, duplicates of himself were created. Each of them

"Ooh, I see lots of Killuas!" Gon exclaimed.

"It must be an assassination technique." Kagero pointed out.

Killua started to attack and his copies vanished. Netero easily evaded all his attempts to get the ball. Killua was even more pissed off and decided to do a spinning dropkick. He launched himself towards Netero, low to the ground and planted the kick right to his shin. Netero didn't react. A few seconds later Killua held onto his shin and jumped up and down in pain from the force of his kick.

"Killua! Tag! Tag!" Gon called Killua cutely. Killua limped over, nursing his sore shin, and clapped hands with Gon. He looked over to Kagero who was simply watching from the corner of the room, sitting on the floor and leaning against the corner.

Gon started stretching. "Okay!" He got into his fighting stance. He accelerated to Netero. Netero relaxed his guard when Gon suddenly disappeared. He looked above to see Gon looking all smug and confident...Until... He hit the ceiling.

Gon cringed in pain on the floor.

"Idiot! We all know you can jump really high! Control your strength!" Killua crossed his arms and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, Netero let his guard down for an instant." Kagero pointed out.

Netero sweat dropped, _No kidding..._

Gon got up from his spell of pain and rubbed his head. "I messed up there." He walked around and gave it another shot, but failed.

"Mirage! Do you wanna' go?!" Gon ran up to her.

"Sure." Gon had his hand up in the air waiting for a clap to switch them out. Kagero paused and clapped his hand, getting a huge grin from Gon.

Kagero got up and walked to Netero. She looked to Killua. "Hey Killua, how'd you do that move you did? Then one when you multiplied yourself." Kagero asked, she was curious and wanted to learn it.

"I just walked silently in a certain rhythm." Killua gave a vague description.

"I see..." She tried walking around in a syncopated rhythm,"..." She tried again. "Killua, you'll have to teach me later." She sulked. Though she knew she wouldn't be able to get it just like that. But she certainly hoped so, that would have been _so_ cool. She sighed, she'd done something similar to that in training before... but it was too difficult to learn right off the bat. She needed to learn how to walk without making _any_ sound at all.

"I guess I'll start now." Kagero circled him. Though there was only two of her. This was from training with her father though. It's from moving from one place to another so quickly that it leaves an after image, and that would be the double. No, it wasn't rhythm echo, but it was better to use as a distraction, though it was really tiring to do and she couldn't do it for more than fifteen seconds at a time. She made her circle smaller and smaller until she was close to Netero. Then she jumped making the after image vanish. Netero looked up, expecting her to do the same as Gon, only to see her not in the air. She was behind him. Kagero jumped up and propelled herself off of the ceiling and appeared behind him. Netero bolted forward suspecting that she was behind him, the footprint on the padding that was on the ceiling giving her plans away.

"Che." Kagero kicked the ground. "One more time."

This time she just walked up to him. Netero was wondering what she would do before Kagero suddenly went all acrobatic on him. Then she grabbed onto his arm and swung herself around his body. Kagero was on his back when he went to the wall and leaned against it pinning her to it.

"Damn it." She cursed. She tried to wriggle herself out, but couldn't. She wiggled her knees up his back and pushed, making him stumble forwards. She fell to the ground with an 'Umph' from the lack of pressure keeping her up. She got up slowly, sighing, "Someone switch with me..." She took a few deep breaths to steady her breathing.

After a few turns between the boys—which took a span of about twenty minutes—Killua was trying again for the fourth time and was getting angry.

"You boys aren't getting anywhere. Why not attack simultaneously?" Netero offered.

"Okay... I'll get you this time!" Gon bolted into the fight but got his face pushed into the ground almost immediately by Netero.

Kagero joined in few minutes later after the two couldn't do anything. Having Kagero join in would put more onto Netero's plate. Kagero jumped up to bring down a heel on his shoulder, but he spun away, only to face Gon. Gon was in motion to kick Netero's head, but missed by a foot, not having enough reach. That's when he kicked his boot off to get more distance and knocked him right in the chin. Kagero took the chance and kicked him in the chest, making him fall. As Netero fell backwards Killua kicked him in the back and he fell forwards. All the sudden motion made Netero loose his grip and the ball flew above Netero's back. Killua went to jump for the ball but Netero moved his leg to kick the ball out of the way. Kagero intervened just before his foot got close the ball and pushed his foot to the ground, though Netero just ended up using his other leg to kick it away. He recovered and went to grab the ball still in the air. Kagero frowned at how good Netero was it was really impressive but quite frustrating at the moment.

That's when Gon kicked his other boot off and hit the ball further away.

"You and your little tricks!" Netero yelled.

"Good going Gon!" Kagero gave him a thumbs up.

The two boys yelled 'It's mine!' and reached out to grab the ball. That's when Netero got serious, exerting all his force into his leg and shot himself like a cannon towards the ball. The old man zoomed passed the boys, making them move with the shockwave. He saw a scarf fluttering by the ball as he got closer. His eyes widened and it wrapped around the ball and was pulled towards another direction. Kagero caught the ball with a grin, blowing her bangs up out of her eyes with a huff. "Well that was a ball." She laughed at her pun and saw Killua blink owlishly before sighing. Netero chuckled and Gon wasn't even paying attention.

"Wow! Kagero you got it! You're amazing Kagero! Netero!"

"No, he's only been using his right leg and left arm. Even though I got the ball I'm not accepting the title." She looked to Netero and tossed the ball to him. "Also, you weren't really going to give us the title anyways. Were you?"

"Oh, you figured it out? And here I thought I'd fooled you." Netero relaxed.

"So that's what he was doing..."

Killua's expression darkened and he got up from the floor with an annoyed huff. "Forget it... I give up. I lose!" He walked to the door and paused to pick up his shirt. He turned to face Netero with an exaggerated laugh, "Hah, hah! You really know how to piss me off, old man. Now come on, let's go, Gon!"

"Oh, I'm gonna play a little longer."

"What? Didn't you just hear what I said?!"

"Yea! I don't care about the ball. We've only used up half of the time limit. I'm gonna make Netero-san use his right hand before the time runs out." Killua was speechless, and so he left in that bundle of frustration of his.

"I'm also going to stay a bit longer." Kagero said to Netero.

"Really?!" Gon was happy.

"I'm going to get some drinks though, be right back." Kagero left to find vending machine or something. She walked around the outer hallway and looked at the night sky, on the way she found a vending machine. Kagero got four bottles of water and a few chocolate bars. When she looked at the options she was surprised to see some brands that were from her world, and some that looked really weird. From a picture on a bag of chips it looked to be a… fish flavor? It had scales but also fur and animal ears. She would not want to encounter such a fish. It had unnaturally long fangs. She ended up purchasing it, just morbidly curious about the chips.

While she was walking back to the training room she heard a noise. She went to inspect—out of morbid curiosity once again—and saw two people lying on the floor, dead. In the other direction she saw Killua. She walked up to him not making a noise—rather tried but he still didn't notice due to his state of mind—and put bottled water to his neck getting him to flinch and turn around, ready to strike. But she just grinned at him.

"Here," she tossed him the water bottle. Killua didn't seem like himself. Then she remembered something from TV. Her grin widened and she calmed down to be able to do a straight face while she did it.

Kagero cleared her throat, "Killua."

"Yea...?"

"Have a snickers."

"...Why?"

"Because you're not yourself when you're hungry," She put the chocolate bar in his hand and walked off, waving. Killua started laughing. Not only because she didn't react to the people that lay on the ground, but because she pulled off the Snickers slogan, and with such a straight face that made it hilarious.

Walking back to the room, she passed by the dead bodies. "..." Kagero frowned, bending down to crossed their arms and closed their eyes—mustn't be disrespectful to the dead.

"Hmm, I wouldn't have thought you were a killer."

Kagero jumped away from the voice with a start, dropping the water in the progress. She tensed, and looked to the owner of the voice. "...Hisoka..." She sighed, "Don't do that to-" She stopped herself before she said 'a girl', wouldn't want to give away her cover. She followed up with a sigh. She relaxed her posture and looked at Hisoka, then she saw his face, he was silently laughing at her. She looked annoyed and continued, "Don't do that to a person, almost gave me a heart attack." She bent down to pick up the water, "And no, I didn't kill these men. Killua did you see, he just had some... pent up frustration."

Hisoka almost laughed at that again. He wondered if it was worded that way deliberately. He eyed Kagero, and she sensed him looking at her. Kagero looked up to him and back to the water and chocolate bars. She sighed, "Here."

"..."

"Don't you want it?"

"What made you think that, boya?"

"Well you were just tantalizingly eying the chocolate... Now here, take it." She took his hand and placed a Kit Kat and a bottle of water in it. "You need the break anyways." She laughed and ran off. Though Hisoka probably didn't need a break—she just said it for the pun. Another person in the shadows watched her departed.

"Hisoka..." The person spoke monotonously.

"Ara... Illumi, you saw that?"

"I saw him give you those items and make a joke. Though if he didn't kill them, that means Killu must have."

"Yes, Kagero doesn't have the aura of a killer... though he seems to be used to death..." He smiled to himself creepily. Though she was only used to death because of hunting.

 _He better not be targeting Killu too. He has enough children to target already..._ Illumi thought after leaving the clown to indulge in his... thoughts...

When Kagero got back to the room and opened the door to see Gon and Netero talking. They looked up when the door opened.

"Here ya guys go." She tossed a bottle to Netero and Gon.

"Thanks!" Gon caught the bottle, same with Netero.

Kagero walked up to the two. "Pick one." Gon picked the Hershey's and Netero got the Twix. Kagero was left with the Caramilk.

"What did you give to Killua?" Gon asked assuming she gave Killua one too.

"The Snickers." She paused and drank some water, "He's not himself when he's hungry." Netero started laughing.

"Wha-What's so funny?" Gon was confused because he hasn't watched television in a long time.

"Nothing, just something from television." Netero explained.

"I haven't watched television in a really long time. My TV broke."

"Poor kid..." Kagero side commented. Netero started laughing again. "I also gave Hisoka one, a KitKat." Gon choked on his Hershey's and started chugging his water to get it down. "I bumped into him... or rather he scared me by sneaking up on me." Netero looked amused, "It looked like he wanted some so..." She smiled sheepishly, "I gave him some. Though I had to get another bar and water... Man, he needs to give us a break with all his creepiness." She deadpanned. Netero started laughing again.

"Oh yeah, what's this animal?" She brought out the bag of chips. "It's like a fish…cat?"

"That's exactly what it is. They're called Sakaneko."

"Oh…" She didn't really want to eat a catfish. "You guys want them? I just got them out of morbid curiosity."

"Sure!" Gon ate them and commented on their weird flavor.

When they were done their snack they went back to sparing. While Gon was trying to get Netero to use his right hand he sped his movements up considerably. Gon decided to take a break so Kagero took a turn.

"Mind if we spar instead? I already got the ball from you."

"Sure."

"Then let us dance." Netero deadpanned at her pun relating to her other pun.

Kagero and Netero sparred while Gon rested. The spar was amazing, Kagero's reaction time was at its peak and she managed to get some good hits in. Then she decided to get serious, not that she wasn't serious already, but she wanted to go full power with her strength. She knew that if she just hit him blindly she wouldn't be able to get him to go flying. So she went behind him and buckled his knees by kicking the back of his knees slightly. He fell under his weight a little and she took the chance to kick him as hard as she could in the back. Netero went flying towards the padded wall, slamming into it.

"Creative little..." Netero cursed under his breath, though he was thoroughly impressed with her overall ability and strength.

They spared a bit more until she noticed Gon was rejuvenated and ready to go.

"Well I guess I'm done..." Kagero smiled. "I'm satisfied with this for now. Gon, you good?"

"Un!" Gon nodded and ran in to resume him fight. After a few feigns and psyche's he head-butted Netero in the stomach. Netero didn't react but then Gon went to do the same thing again. Netero knew that if he hit his stomach again without relaxing his, muscles he would shatter his skull, but if he relaxed he would be the one feeling the pain. Netero evaded him by using his other hand to push on his back and Gon went flying towards the wall, slamming head first into it. Man the kids going to get brain damage someday, though... Gon ended up falling asleep in the end after hitting the wall to hard.

"Netero..."

"Ahn?"

"Thanks, it was fun." Kagero smiled under her hood. "I'll be going to sleep now." She yawned. "Good night... But first..." She walked up to Gon and put his little jacket on the boy as a makeshift blanket. Kagero felt really warm because of all the exercise she was doing and followed Gon's idea of taking her sweater off. She didn't want to take it off in front of them just in case, but Netero was fine, he was an examiner and wouldn't tell due to a secrecy policy or something that she read in a form. Kagero just had a blue tank on with bandages underneath, and arm guards. Netero noticed a metallic gleam under them.

She nodded and walked off waving to Netero lazily, throwing her sweater over her shoulder.

"...Interesting boy."

It was peacefully quiet while Kagero walked through the airship at the ungodly hour. Suddenly she took a whiff of something—something that smelt unpleasant. Kagero took in a deep breath in and coughed. Man she needed a shower, and in a moment of unbelievable convenience there was a washer and dryer in the bathroom. She locked the door and threw all her clothes in the washer and set it for ten minutes since she didn't have a full load. While waiting she cleaned her wig in the sink since it needed to be washed by hand. It felt weird having her hair down after having it up in a wig after so long. Speaking of long it was really long after not being cut. It went all the way down to her tailbone, closer to the thigh. Kagero wrapped her hair loosely around her neck in a makeshift scarf.

"Ah!"

The beep from the washer scared her and she jumped. Kagero put it in the dryer and went to shower while she waited for that. There was hotel shampoo and conditioner in those tiny bottles. She ended up using two of the shampoo and four of the conditioners for her hair.

She stepped out of the shower after wringing her hair partially dry and finished it with a towel. She heard a beep from the machine and knew her clothes were done.

"Ahh, it's so warm~" Kagero hugged her clothes.

She wrapped her bandages on first—they were a smooth cloth material and were reusable if washed—and put the rest of her clothing on. When she excited the bathroom she felt a bit of a chill. _Gon must be cold with just his small coat. Hmm…_ She went back to the room and quietly put her sweater over his body as another blanket. Gon's jacket would do nothing in keeping him warm. She jumped when he grumbled in his sleep and moved to scratch his stomach. Kagero sighed and smiled, he should never change. She felt her fatigue come back, the shower refreshed her but it didn't do anything to her still feeling tired.

Kagero yawned and walked to the rooms that everyone was sleeping in. Killua's white hair in the darkness caught her eye and since she didn't really know anyone else in the room it was the safest choice to go to his side. She sat down beside him and slowly drifted to sleep.

Killua was awakened by something plopping on his shoulder. He looked beside him to see Kagero sleeping peacefully. He smirked and snickered a bit as he remembered the Snickers thing she pulled off. He caught himself staring at her and noticed something.

 _He does have an awfully feminine face now that I see him up close_. Looking down he noticed his sweater was missing, he also noticed that he had bandages all along his upper body and arms. He stopped his thoughts and went back to sleep, he would need the energy in the morning.

While everyone was sleeping an announcement came on. "I apologize for the long wait," it was Beans voice. "The airship will soon arrive at its destination."

Gon woke up from his slumber right when the announcement came on and bounded over the the windows to look outside. There was a tower on a cylinder shaped mountain with a manmade cylinder tower on top of it. It was really high above the ground. Then he noticed Kagero's sweater on the ground beside his own. "I'll have to thank him later!"

"Kagero... _Kagero_... Time to get up. Were at the site for the third phase!" Killua shook Kagero awake.

"Hnn... Killua?" Kagero's voice was sluggish and she was drooling a bit, she wiped her crusty eyes from under the bangs of her wig. Killua thought that Kagero looked even more like a girl like this. She was just so... cute when groggy.

"Wh-where are we?" She wiped the drool off of her mouth and yawned, stretching like a cat.

"At the third exam site." Killua suppressed a slight blush.

Killua ended up dragging Kagero out of the airship by the wrist and met up with Gon, Leorio and Kurapika. He almost got stabbed when her arm guard's hidden blade shot out, but she still didn't wake up fully.

"What's up with Mirage?" Leorio asked.

"He just got up..." Killua hit her upside the head.

"Ugh, Killua...You're mean..." Kagero grabbed the back of her head.

"Mirage, you have a mark on your face..." Kurapika pointed out.

"Ah..." She rubbed the spot lazily, eyes refusing to be open.

"I'd never thought that Kagero would be like...this in the morning..." Leorio laughed, "Doesn't really suit his usual self."

Kagero heard this and pouted at Leorio.

"Did he always wear bandages?" Kurapika questioned himself. Then Gon and Leorio noticed.

Somehow while Kagero was in this, state, she noticed someone watching her. Hisoka was staring at her. Though she was too tired to do anything, she just stared back and cocked her head to the side, wondering why he was staring at her.

Everyone's attention was gathered when Beans had an announcement.

"Ahem... Everyone, the exam's Third Phase will begin here, at the top of Trick Tower. To pass this phase, you must reach the towers base alive. The time limit is seventy-two hours. With that, we will now begin the Third Phase. I pray for your success.

The airship took off and Beans used the megaphone to encourage the rest of the applicants. "Best of luck to everyone!"

Kagero was slowly waking up and even in her state she found the humor to whisper, "And may the odds be ever in your favor."

Meanwhile, someone was watching them from deep within the tower. Most likely the examiner.

Gon looked down the edge of the Tower and was in awe by the pure height of it.

"Are we supposed to climb down?" Leorio said clinging on to his suitcase scared like it was a teddy bear.

"That would be suicide..." Kurapika sweat dropped.

"Heh. Maybe for a normal person." Eighty-six said arrogantly, his name unknown to them. He went over to the edge and started scaling the wall. "But a top-class rock climber can handle this, no problem."

Killua let out a "Wow" and whistled, impressed, though he would be able to do the same, just making holes to grip with his sharp nails and kicking them for his feet.

"He's going down pretty fast." Gon looked over the edge down to the man.

"Looks like I'll be the first one to pass the Third Phase..." The man said as he was climbing down.

"Be careful, arrogance is what kills people in the end." Kagero warned the man, finally fully awake.

The man stopped climbing when he heard weird noises. He looked to his side slowly to see huge monster birds come flying towards him.

"Stop! Stay away!" One purposely flew under him and took him into his mouth and flew away.

"G-Guess we can't climb down the side..." Leorio muttered.

"Oh yeah! Here Mirage!" Gon gave her, her sweater.

"Thanks." She tied it around her waist. Her scarf just stayed around her neck loosely, flowing in the wind.

A while later and Kagero noticed something. "Hey, there are fewer applicants."

"Yea, half of the applicants already found an exit." Kurapika stated.

"There must be hidden doors that lead below." Kagero bent down to knock on the floor. It sounded hollow.

"Kurapika! Leorio! Mirage!" Gon called them over waving. The three ran over to Killua and Gon.

"What is it, Gon?" Kurapika asked.

"Look, I found a hidden door." Gon pushed on a tile and it opened slightly. "There are others over there, there, there and there!" Gon pointed to the areas where they were.

"Some could be traps." Kurapika analyzed.

"And it looks as though each door could only be used once...We tried opening a door someone else used, but it wouldn't budge." Killua added.

"So no hard feeling if any of us spring a trap. Hmm." Kagero ruffled Gon's and Killua's hair. Gon simply looked up and Killua made a noise similar to 'Hn'. "What are you going to do?"

"Luck is part of the game..." Kurapika interrupted Leorio.

"I have no objection."

Everyone agreed and move to stand in front of a door and said their farewells.

"Let's go on the count of three."

"One."

"Two."

"Three!" Everyone jumped on to their designated doors.

Kagero fell into a dark room with and torch in the room, and landed on her feet without making much of a sound. She looked to the back right corner of the room that was behind her. Aww, it seemed that she got a different room than the others.

"Who's there?"

"Don't be alarmed. Boya"

"Hisoka."

"Ping-pon! Correct! I've been waiting for you~"

"So you needed another person to continue..."

"Hai~"

Then a door opened and an announcement came on. "Number 44 and 410, you two will face a trial of obstacles before facing an opponent and choosing your paths. Please put these watches on." A stone pedestal came out from a wall with two watches on them. They had a time on them and two buttons, one thumbs up and one thumbs down. Both Hisoka and Kagero put them on and the torch went out.

"Ooh scary~" Hisoka said sarcastically. Kagero's face was blank as if asking '...really?'

"Come on." Kagero walked through the door and Hisoka followed. The door slammed shut and lights went on. There were two sided axes swinging from side to side. They had to get past this to get to the other side. Kagero walked through like it was nothing and same did Hisoka, it was just a matter of timing and rhythm. Hisoka was whistling absently and a maze of mirrors came up, there were two paths. They had to split up. Kagero read about these types of mazes in books. She looked to the floor. The lined from where the mirrors were hidden well since the floor was also glass and was in triangles. She walked through it and met a fork in the maze. She looked to the right to see no reflection strait on and to the left where she could see more reflections. She went right. She followed this logic and walked through. When she was done it took about ten minutes since it was an insanely large maze, there were even stairs going down to the next level to continue it.

"Figure's you would be done before me..." She looked to Hisoka. "You are a 'clown' after all." She laughed a bit. There was another door way and the watches started to glow.

The watched had a message on them. 'X' to open the door and 'O' to keep it closed. Naturally they both picked 'X' and the door opened. It was another puzzle. The ground lit up in a certain pattern a few times and it stopped.

"Hisoka..."

"Do you know what this puzzle is?"

"Not at all~"

"Hmm..." She reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the fruit bars she had and threw it on a square on the floor that didn't glow. That square on the floor warped and shattered. "Follow me."

Hisoka stayed quiet and did as he was told wondering what she would do next. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him along following the path she memorized when the floor was glowing. Each time they took a step on the correct square it glowed. She was right. The glowing squares from before was the correct path, and if they didn't take it the whole floor would shatter.

After they finished crossing they stepped on concrete and another door appeared. The glass floor behind them shattered and reviled spikes facing upwards ready to kill them if they had failed. The door open and the two went into the room. It was huge, high ceilings and large square footage. Two people appeared from the shadows.

"We'll be your opponents." One of them said.

"This will either be a team battle or separate. Use majority rules to choose. 'X' is team, and 'O' is separate."

Hisoka and Kagero hit 'O'.

"Pick your opponent," an announcement came on over an intercom, it was assumed to be the third phases examiner.

The first opponent had daggers on chains and seemed like a long distance fighter, thought he was really buff and macho, while the other looked like a hand to hand combat since he was wearing a Gi and had a black belt on, who was also quite macho though he wasn't as macho as the other guy.

"I'm willing to take the Karate Kid here." Hisoka laughed at Kagero's joke.

"I'll take Mister Daggers here then~"

 **(Omake)**

The two boys yelled "It's mine!" and were about to grab the ball. That's when Netero put all his force into his legs and shot himself like a cannon towards the ball. The old man zoomed passed the boys. He saw a scarf fluttering by the ball, the scarf wrapped around it and was pulled towards another direction. Kagero caught the ball, an idea forming in her head.

"Wow! Kagero you got it! You're amazing Kagero!" Gon ran around excitedly.

Kagero raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Heh," She laughed, "Well you guys ain't got no _balls_ on me."

Killua deadpanned at the terrible pun while Gon had no idea what it meant. Netero however... he had a hard time containing his laughter.

 **(Omake End)**

 **Updated as up 03/06/2016.**


	7. Chapter 7

The speaker cracked as the sound kicked in. "Choose who goes first."

No one questioned the voice of God that was making them fight for their pleasure—okay no. It wasn't God. But Kagero liked being creative and dramatic with theatrics. Though it would be hard to show it without getting even more unwanted attention since she didn't want unwanted attention because she didn't want people to know her gender because it was _UNWANTED_. If that was actually said a gasp of air would have been needed.

"Hisoka, you can go." Kagero leaned against the wall of the room and sat down.

"I've been waiting...Hisoka." The guy with daggers stood up. The darkened room brightened up as green torches were lit up in an orderly fashion. You could finally see the opponent's faces. The man with the daggers had scars, running up his face from his cheeks and passed the brow. He had a savage smile. You could easily tell he wanted to kill.

"Well that's fancy." Kagero referred to the green flames that were flickering about hauntingly. And despite the three buff men in front of her who looked like they were all about making people scream bloody murder—it was actually quite pretty.

"I'm not here as an examiner this year Hisoka. I'm here for _revenge_." He said maliciously, "Today, I'll get payback for my scars!" He drew his blade, spun it in the air and caught it effortlessly.

"Heh, those scars merely show that you were an incompetent examiner." He smirked. "You're blaming me for your own inadequacies." The brute took out another dagger.

"Quit yapping!" He began to spin those daggers incredibly fast and started laughing. "Prepare to die!"

"Dual wielding?" Hisoka's smirk disappeared when he threw the two daggers in the air.

He took out two more daggers and yelled, "Infinite quad wielding!" and threw the two blades, one down and one just above the first, leaving a space in between them. Hisoka dodged by side jumping in between the space. He rushed to Hisoka and cross slashed. Though, he dodged. The two daggers came back spinning wildly and one of them slashed Hisoka's side.

While Kagero was watching intently she couldn't help but think that if the cycle of daggers was interrupted there would be a hole in the offence, and thus make an opening to attack. With a sword or other weapon you could deflect the blade and alter its course and it wouldn't make it back to the thrower. The rhythmic catching and throwing of the blades was hypnotic. Along with the green flames shining onto the reflecting metal it came to look very interesting.

"It's not over yet!" The brute threw his others blades in the air and caught the other ones for another attack. He continuously threw them and Hisoka was forced to keep dodging.

Kagero started to nod off, the repetitiveness making her sleepy. The dodging continued. Her eyes closed fully and her head rested onto her shoulder. The brute was yelling about how dodging is futile and he would get shredded. Kagero missed something after she fell asleep. Hisoka caught the blades. He let out an aura to scare the man and succeeded, though Kagero slept right through it. The man's yell was cut off— _literally_ —as he was beheaded.

Half of the green torches went out and the room darkened. Hisoka walked off and saw that Kagero was slumped against the wall. He walked up to her and knelt down seeing her sleeping face.

"Hmm, so you're a girl, interesting…" Hisoka has seen her face before with all the fuss from her friends, but only deducted her gender when he saw her relaxed sleeping face. He shook her shoulder, "Dearie, while it's such a _shame_ to wake you from your little cat nap, it's now your turn."

"Hnnmm?" She got up groggily, stretching with a yawn, and looked to Hisoka. Her keen eyes did not miss the injury on his side and shoulder—well it was quite obvious with the torn fabric and blood. "You're injured... Let me help..." She yawned again, reaching into her bag for medical stuff.

"No need to," Hisoka pointed to the Karate kid, "He's waiting."

"Nope. Injuries must be treated, it could get infected." Gauze and disinfectant appeared in her hand. "It's ok right, Karate-san?"

"As long as it's okay with the examiner." Just as he finished the speaker turned on.

"It's fine. As long as you know you're wasting your time." You could imagine someone pushing up their large circular rimmed glasses.

"I'm fine with that," Kagero gave a pointed look to Hisoka. "Now sit _down_." Hisoka complied as she seemed stubborn about it. "Would you mind if you pulled your shirt up?" No answer...

Kagero sighed, "Fine then, be that way," She pulled his shirt up nonchalantly and came face to torso with well-built abs. Hisoka simply stared, amused at the situation at hand. She was used to it, with her father's dojo and everything. Buff built shirtless men everywhere the eye could see—alright, alright that was an exaggeration, there were a few women too. Kagero wiped the wound clearing the area around it getting rid of the blood.

"This may sting a bit." Kagero applied the disinfectant and Hisoka didn't even flinch. _Show off_ , she thought with a frown. She couldn't even do that with the horrible stinging of doctor stuff, it was always so painful. Or it was just her dad being too rough when treating her injuries. Yup. Stupid rough n' tough father. Kagero finished by dabbing it and applied a light gauze taping.

"There good as new. Or at least it will be." She patted the wound. There was a period of silence before she deadpanned, "...You can pull your shirt down now." He complied.

"I assume you are ready?" The man in the white karate Gi walked to the middle of the room to where the dead body still laid.

Kagero walked to the middle and stared at the lifeless body. She noticed that she stepped in his pool of blood when she heard a splash. "We have to kill our opponent?" Her expression saddened.

"Yes." The examiner once again came onto the intercom.

"..." Kagero was fine with killing animals but she had never killed a person before. "If I have to..." She grimaced, "I'll do it." She still stared at the body.

The other man sighed gutturally, "He's in the way." He grabbed the head by the hair and dragged the body by the arm. The head was thrown onto the body; it rolled and hit the wall.

Kagero glared at the man for doing that to a corpse. She jogged over, avoiding the trail of blood, and crossed the arms. She picked up the head with a gag, the feeling of holding it was horrible. Kagero attached it the best she could and closed the eyes.

She felt that she was going to be sick, but she endured by taking a few deep breaths. She walked back to the center of the room. Her eyes void of emotion. She needed to block out her feelings for this. She could cope afterwards.

"I'm ready." She said dully. The man took his fighting stance and so did Kagero.

The man started by running to Kagero and before he got to her she ran too. She jumped well above his height, and landed on his shoulders. She tightened her grip on his head with her feet and twisted her body getting him to spin. His neck was strong enough that he could resist his neck being snapped, but couldn't stop spinning and he fell to the ground. Kagero jumped off his shoulders as he fell increasing the impact to the cold, hard, already bloody ground. Kagero's clothes started to glow and she spun in the air, the glow from her clothing creating a spiral of neon blue as she came down spinning and implanted her foot in his gut. He coughed up a decent amount of blood. She didn't stop and twisted his arm, dislocating it. She was only disengaged when she was kicked roughly and sent flying, hitting the ground and sliding on it.

Hisoka's eyes widened his mouth upturning. He didn't think that she could be so heartless. Her tenacity was impressive.

"I complement your strength, but that alone can't beat me." He reached into his Gi and took out a short katana. "You will be the one to die."

Kagero decided to initiate the attack this time. She flash stepped around leaving trails of neon. She got the Idea from Killua's Rhythm echo, but running instead, the glowing neon added to the effect. It was a work in progress, the maneuver being really fast, but hard to control. Though the room was huge and she had a lot of room to run.

"Hmm, now where did you learn this from?" Hisoka eyed Kagero following the Neon trails.

"This is an assassination technique." The sweat ran down the man's bald head. He was getting worried.

"Not quite. But other than that... it's none of your business." The circular ring of neon vanished as she flew behind him.

He didn't notice her behind him and simply thought that she disappeared. He looked around, Kagero mirroring his movement to stay out of his field of vision. Suddenly he brought his arms behind him and grabbed Kagero. Kagero made a sound of surprise. She just dislocated his arm not a few moments ago. He was about to throw her so she kicked the back of his legs to make him fall. He loosened his grip and Kagero Grabbed his Gi and spun them around mid-air.

The man kicked away and nicked her face with his sword as he slashed in mid-air. Kagero charged again and barely evaded the sword strikes trying to get in close. The sword skimmed her a few times as her shoulders were sporting a few cuts. Then he lunged, Kagero didn't expect him to lunge forward. She twirled around the sword but it grazed her neck.

Kagero disengaged to check the wound. "No jugular, no major blood loss..." She sighed. She hadn't been this damaged in a fight in a long time, though the wound on her neck would scar if not treated properly. She unsheathed her arm blades and ran up to him. He slashed downwards and she deflected it off to the side. His sword went flying across the room.

"..." He rushed her with hand to hand combat in a futile attempt to damage her anymore. She would block with the blades causing him to get deep cuts. He tripped her unexpectedly and she got pinned to the ground. There was a pause and you could hear their laboured breaths. The man looked down to Kagero with a stoic face.

"You were a great opponent and it's a shame to kill you." Kagero bit her lip as he positioned his sword at her neck. She tilted her head up and away from it she could still feel it pressing on her skin, drawing a thin line of blood. He leaned down to whisper something. "It was an honor to–"

"AHHHHH!" Kagero yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking when she shrieked. His ear was right by her mouth so it was a gamble to see if it would actually work. Luckily her voice could be very loud and it caught the man off guard enough that she could flip him over. Before he could react, she cut the tendons in his legs so he wouldn't be able to get up as an extra measure. Kagero was now on top of him. She pinned his arms above his head. He struggled but couldn't break free of her grip. It took all her strength to keep him pinned. He had the body size advantage for grappling by far. She had taken the right choice in injuring his legs—otherwise she probably would have already died.

"I'm sorry, but your time is over." Her eyes glowed their bright interchanging green and blue colours. She stared at him, not noticing her eyes swelling up in tears, but her eyes still scared the man, even though they were filled with sadness and guilt. She choked at the man's expression. Before it was shocked and scared, but now it was just calm and his eyes were closed. Accepting it. His loss. His _death_.

 _It's time. I've been in here too long already._

He opened his eyes and looked at her with hard eyes.

 _Do it._

She swung her arm down, swiftly slashing to cut his neck, though it wasn't deep enough. She wanted to jump away to avoid the spurt of blood that came with the kill, but her body just didn't respond. It splashed up onto her face and clothes. Realizing he was still alive she felt bad, she couldn't give him the quick and painless death she wanted him to have. With one fell swoop of her arm, the head was decapitated. Her body felt heavy and she didn't even move as she got even more blood on her, covering the front of her.

She couldn't look away from who she just murdered. He could have fought back. But he didn't. Kagero was still for the next minute. The tears dried and she slowly got up. She looked over to the dead man she killed. _Murderer._ She couldn't just leave it how it was. She crossed his arms on his chest. She mourned for a moment and turned to Hisoka with sad, blank eyes.

"I guess I'm done Hisoka, let's go..." Hisoka stood there, staring at her eyes. They were glowing. "What?" She just noticed the wet feeling on her cheeks. "Oh, I'm sorry." Kagero wiped her eyes and scratched her head. "Well... Let's go."

They walked to the door on the other side of the room in silence. The door opened. "Choose your path." The examiner came on again.

"I guess I'll go to the right."

"Fine." Hisoka eyed her and pressed the 'X' button. The wall opened and he walked through. _That must have been her first kill. She took it nicely…_ He smiled to himself.

Kagero pressed the 'O' button and the other wall opened. It was a hallway, a _long_ hallway. She walked down it, remembering the moments when she killed the man. _Murderer_. The silence was not helping her. She reached an elevator. It went down a few floors and opened to another hallway with bars blocking the way, it was another choice of 'X' or 'O'. She chose 'X' and went left. She walked for a while, for who knows how long. She wasn't keeping track, stuck in a daze as she walked forward aimlessly. She noticed voices as she turned a corner.

Kagero walked through to be blinded by light of a room with what appeared to be a floating block in the middle with two people on it. A pink haired girl and a middle aged man, wait a minute… that was Leorio. She looked around and by the sides of the hallway she saw Killua, Gon, Kurapika and Tonpa. They looked surprised, and rather pale. Were they always that pale?

"Kagero! What happened?!" Kurapika ran up to her. She hadn't dressed any of her injuries as they weren't deep or serious—other than her neck that was bleeding very slowly.

"Ah! Mirage! Are you okay? What happened? Are you dying? I hope you aren't! Please don't die!" Gon rambled, not sure what to do.

Kagero chuckled grimly. "I'm fine." She looked over to the others. "I'm fine." She said again to reassure herself.

"What's wrong? You seem depressed." Killua wondered.

"I... Never mind... I'll explain later..." Kagero looked to the scene that was across her. Leorio and the girl were playing rock paper scissors betting the time they had. The girl was taunting him and Leorio was faltering.

By the end of it Leorio lost. An announcement came on. "A new applicant has joined. The amount of wins will change to four. You may also choose an opponent that is still alive on the other side."

The criminals were talking on the other side when they suddenly stopped. They looked terrified. The huge mass of muscle moved, getting up from their sitting position.

"Guess I'm up." Killua said, stretching and cracking his knuckles.

The cuffs on the man were taken off, the other criminals backed away. It appeared that a blue skinned person insulted him and in retaliation his got grabbed and embedded it into the wall. He started walking and gripped the wall, dragging his hand across forcing the others to move away leaving a path in the wall. He took off his hood.

Leorio gasped in fear. "That guy...We should take the loss. Killua! Don't fight him."

"Why?"

"Johness the Dissector. The worst mass murderer in Zaban's history. All of his victims had one thing in common; he killed them with his bare hands. He was known for his iron grip, the power in his fingers."

As Leorio finished he crushed a piece of stone and let the sand fall through his fingers. "It's been so long since I touched human flesh."

Killua looked totally unimpressed at Leorio's little bio of Johness and walked across the path that extended to attach to the stage. Leorio yelled at Killua, not wanting him to face the mass murderer.

"Damn it, was he even listening to me?!"

"He'll be fine. He has some tricks up his sleeve." Kagero sat down, feet dangling off the edge of the ledge over the endless pit surrounding the stage.

Leorio was about to say something about her appearance and injuries but she interrupted him before he could speak. "I'm _fine_. Worry about Killua."

The paths receded into the platform and the fight started. The man made a speech, but his speech was cut short after Killua got impatient of the man. It was a fight to the death, and Killua won by simply by ripping out his heart. The man stayed alive for a few moments, staring at the heart—his own heart—grasping out for it. He fell and the organ was put in the corpses open palm.

Killua flicked the blood off his hand and turned to look at his team—which the majority were looking at him oddly.

"Okay, that's three wins, Kagero your up." Killua mused.

"..." Kagero got up and slowly walked across the gap to the stage. The dead body brought another wave of empty emotions, she dragged the body and put it to the side, crossing its arms. He was large and she could lift him, but she didn't feel the need.

"He seems so… so _empty_ right now. What the hell happened?" Killua was worried.

"He said he's fine—though I don't believe it one bit." Leorio huffed.

"He will explain later."

"Now pick who you will fight." Another announcement from the examiner came on.

"I'll take you then." She pointed to the dark skinned guy with the scars on his bald head and tattoos. He looked eager enough.

"Very well." The announcer said and the opponent walked across. He seemed happy he got chosen. The paths receded.

"What will be the rules?"

"It will be a fight to the death." Kagero's face darkened at the requirement of the battle.

"May I offer an addition to that?"

"Depends." The man smirked.

"How about if you get knocked off the stage you lose, also, if I win I get those hours Leorio lost back."

"The first part is fine but I object to the second part."

"Damn... fine." Kagero muttered darkly.

"Then let's begin." The man immediately ran to her reaching for her throat.

She dodged. "Not even comparable to the last guy..." Kagero murmured, though Gon, Killua and Kurapika heard what she said and got curious. They would definitely ask about that later. It most likely related to the injuries and why she was so depressed.

Kagero moved to wait in the middle of the stage until he attacked again. The man ran up to her and attempted a punch. Kagero grabbed his arm and pulled the arm over her shoulder, kicking her leg to add more force to the throw. He was slammed onto the ground and the tile cracked under the force. He got up almost immediately and rushed her. Kagero feigned a punch to the face and the man went for a high kick, she grabbed his foot an inch away from her head, almost falling from the momentum of the kick. She looked up to the man who was trying to get out of her grasp with no avail—the action made her mind go back to when she pinned her last opponent. Kagero bit her lip, trying to push the memories away. It wasn't time for that. Kagero launched the man across the room into the space where the other criminals were, he was knocked into the candle guy and the girl with pink hair. Everyone was dumbfounded, similar to Killua's win when they found out he was an assassin.

"There, I win." Kagero put her hands in her pockets. "He was knocked off of the platform." There was a ding and the score changed showing that she won. "Thank god for loopholes..." She mumbled, though the others heard since they were close enough after crossing the bridge.

A door opened and a path came out connecting it under the door. Then another announcement came on. "Across the bridge, you'll find a small room. You must spend the fifty hours you gambled away there."

"Well let's go." Killua initiated.

The room was actually… pretty decent. It had a few chairs and a couch, a bookshelf full with books that Kagero has never heard of—and most likely wouldn't be able to read.

• • • • • •

"Good grief. We have to spend fifty hours in this room?" Leorio walked to the couch.

"It's not a prison cell, be happy." Leorio scoffed at Kagero's comment.

"You're right! We should be happy!" Gon chirped.

"Killua."

"Huh?"

"Can you tell me how that technique works? The one you used to instantly remove his heart." Kurapika asked. The motive behind the question was his undying thirst for revenge. It would be an easy kill move and unexpected to anyone.

"Oh, that wasn't even a technique. I just ripped it out. But to make it easier, I manipulated my body a bit." Killua sharpened his nails.

"Y-Your nails..." Leorio and Gon were surprised.

"Mass murderers are still only amateurs. I used to be a professional." He pointed to himself smugly.

"So... you're like a cat." Kagero decided to lighten the mood. Even though she was still depressed about her kill. She needed to take her mind off it.

"A cat? What makes you think that?" Killua was slightly offended.

"Your retractable 'claws'." Kagero yawned, "Plus you act like a cat sometimes."

The four laughed when Killua grunted in retort.

"Well, then. We have more than two whole days in here."

"What should we do, Killua?" Gon asked. He had a few ideas in mind.

"First, we should search the room for any kind of entertainment."

"Yeah!" Gon and Killua ran across the room.

"Man, you kids don't have a care in the world."

Tonpa and Kurapika sat down. Kagero flopped down on the couch beside Kurapika, grabbing a pillow. She put her face into it and sighed heavily with a muffled shout into it. Kurapika looked at her weirdly and decided to let it slide. She looked really stressed out.

"Mirage, what did you mean by what you said 'not even comparable to the last guy' previously?" There was underlying question too. _Why are you so depressed?_ Kurapika was curious; the boys were too, considering how they stopped their activities of rummaging through the cabinets.

"It's a long story..."

"Speaking of which," Killua came in, "What was your trial like?"

"Yea, who were you with?" Gon asked.

 _So many questions_... "I was with Hisoka."

"H-Hisoka?!" Leorio blurted out. Everyone was surprised.

"Yea... We had to go through these puzzles involving mirrors and glass." Kagero explained about the puzzles since Gon was curious about them. By the end of the explanation Gon's head was steaming. "After that we entered a room with two people in it. Hisoka fought his opponent but...I fell asleep... He was injured so I dressed his wounds..." The room was instantly quiet, you could hear a pin drop, until Leorio spoke up.

"H-H...How could you be so relaxed around him! H-He's so creepy and strong!"

"Mirage saved me from Hisoka before! He's strong too!" Gon came in. Leorio stared agape at Kagero.

"Bu-but he killed all those people!"

"He also killed his opponent." The room went silent again.

"What about the other opponent?" Killua got everyone back on topic. " _Your_ opponent."

"He was a Karate master, though a criminal too. I had... I had to kill him...It was the rules... That's how I got my injuries too." Kagero's tone darkened.

"So that's why you seemed so depressed when you came." Kurapika pieced it together.

"And that's the reason you asked to compromise with the rules with the army guy too right?" Gon was being surprisingly smart.

"Yea..."

"Sorry to bring that up Kagero, it must have been hard on you." Leorio was feeling bad. Though he felt a bit scared of Kagero now—it was also the same with Killua.

"Oh, it's alright." Kagero forced a smile. She still didn't feel too good about everything.

"It's not okay!" Gon shouted. "Aunt Mito said that it's best to talk about your problems but only when you're ready! Because if you bottle it up the feeling will change your mindset and change who you are! I don't want you to change Mirage!" Gon started to rant, going on tangents all over the place. "—and then! Then it talked. _The cat talked!_ "

Kagero had been trying to hold it in—covering her mouth with the pillow she screamed into—but she started cracking up. Her laughing grew louder and she laughed for a solid minute. The group went silent and some people blushed slightly. Leorio being completely obvious and Killua hid it well. "You guys are the perfect antidepressant." She chuckled, "Well I guess I'll read a book." Kagero changed the topic. She got up and took a book about famous martial artists of the new world she was in. Though it was just pictures of the man doing various kata forms.

The boys were just killing time when Killua started to show Gon his skateboard. Kagero got interested in it so she got up to get a closer look.

"Oh. Kagero you want to try too?" Killua asked.

"Yeah."

"You'll have to let me try your shoes then."

"Sure, though they may not fit you."

Killua explained the skateboard trick and Kagero played rock paper scissors and got to go first. Killua did a demonstration and Kagero did it on the first try.

"This isn't so hard..." Kagero went back and forth doing occasional jumps.

"Uuah...Let me try! My turn, my turn!" Kagero tossed Gon the board. Gon tried doing the trick but failed and the board whizzed by Tonpa's head effectively messing up his hair.

"Hey don't skateboard in this small room!" Leorio yelled.

"You shouldn't _yell_ so loud either..." Kagero said in a whisper, though Gon and Killua heard and started giggling.

"Then let's try Mirage's shoes!"

Kagero took her shoes off and tossed them to Killua. "Sorry. They might smell."

"Eeh, why's Killua first?"

"Because he let me use his skateboard first," then she side commented, "And you'll probably send them across the room."

Killua put the shoes on and stumbled a bit at first and could rollerblade with only a hint of trouble. Well that's probably because the shoes were a bit too big for him.

"My turn, my turn!" Killua took the shoes off and gave them to Gon with a sulk.

"Th-This is hard." Gon was frustrated. Then he fell and face planted. A shoe flew off his foot flying by Leorio's head this time. "Sorry..." Tonpa laughed at Leorio.

"Hey!" Leorio started bickering with Tonpa.

"It's like they're an old married couple." Kagero laughed slightly.

"WHAAT!" Leorio and Tonpa yelled, though her comment made them stop arguing. Everyone else laughed out loud.

"Hah… haha... I-I'm dying!" Killua's laughter was dying down, well, slightly.

Kagero pouted a little. "It wasn't that funny..." She looked down and to the side blushing slightly.

Everyone ended up doing their own thing. Kurapika had a mountain of books beside him and Leorio and Tonpa were already asleep. Gon and Killua were watching and Kagero was listening to her music.

Kagero stretched and looked at the time. "Hmm, it's getting late."

"Yea, I would say it's time to go to sleep." Kurapika closed a book.

"Is there a bathroom?" Just then a door appeared on the wall and it opened to a bathroom. "Hmm, convenient." Kagero got up and stretched again. "Does anyone need it?"

"I'll go." Gon got up and trotted to the bathroom.

"Kagero, I've never really thought about it but, you _are_ a boy right?"

"What makes you think that Killua?"

Killua shrugged. "I guess it's because you look like a girl sometimes."

"Then shouldn't you also ask Kurapika that question?" Kagero gestured a hand to where Kurapika was.

"I am male." Kurapika said with a hint of anger.

"Yes, yes."

Then you could hear the flush of water from the bathroom and Gon walked out refreshed.

"There's a shower and a bath!" Gon patter his hair with a hand held towel.

"I'll be taking one then." Kagero walked into the bathroom and locked the door.

She left not answering the question about her gender.

 _They can't know yet. They would treat me differently; I don't want their opinions to change_. Kagero sighed and took her clothes off; she took her wig off and set it aside. She turned on the shower head and washed her hair. It was quite long actually, it was almost down to her knees, already down to mid-thy. After washing her hair she put it up in a clip she found lying in the bathroom. There was actually everything you would need there, shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and a hair brush. After the tub was filled Kagero finally had the chance to be at peace with herself.

"Hot hot hot." She slumped into the tub after the she got used to the heat.

 _What a day, what a day. I guess you couldn't expect anything else from the hunter exam. I wonder what father is up to right now... Heh, he's probably watching some anime or something_. Kagero smiled. _I am having fun. I even made my first friends! They're really nice_. To Kagero it seemed as if she was talking to her father. Even with her harsh childhood her father was tough on her. But he was there for her.

She missed him.

Kagero started feeling light headed and got out of the tub, she had heatstroke before and it wasn't pretty—hallucinations that she was severally obese and couldn't move, not to mention the vomiting with hot and cold flashes. She got dressed and wrapped her bandages around her upper body. Taking her hair out of the clip she let it fall and brushed it thoroughly. Her hair no longer had knots or kinks. She dried it thoroughly before putting her hair up in a bald cap. She didn't notice it was in her bag until she searched through it. Her father was really prepared. It was much more secure than the hairnet and it made her head look more proportionate. She put on her wig and straightened it out. It looked much cleaner after the harsh elements it's been through. After brushing her teeth and washing her face she waltzed out of the bathroom happily.

The room was dark, the only light coming from the bathroom and electronics around the room. Everyone was already asleep. The light from the bathroom went directly to Leorio's face and he turned away from it. She closed the door quietly and she was engulfed in darkness.

There was no room on the couches or chairs. Walking—more like shuffling because she couldn't see a thing—around the room she sat in the corner of the room, sat down and slumped against the wall. The effects from the bath got to her and she slowly drifted off to sleep despite the uncomfortable spot she was in. It wasn't as bad as the time she got lost and has to sleep on rocky ground on the mountain she lived on. The trees were usually infested with bugs at that time of year so the cliff side rocks were the best option.

Killua woke up with a pillow to the face. He held the pillow and looked to his friend weirdly. _Is… is he still asleep?_ He stared at him for a moment. He broke into a grin, _let's find out!_ He chucked it at Gon, who somehow threw it back in his sleep. Then Killua took hold of the pillow and winded up for a strong hit, and pummeled him in his face.

"Hey!" Gon shot up and threw another pillow.

Predictably a pillow fight broke out.

Tonpa, the little jerk, was awake the whole time; bullying Leorio with his retched feet stank. He needed a new pair of socks judging from that hole his big toe was escaping from, and that green stench zone around it was killer, a fly dropped dead just by flying in the area around it. Leorio groaned and slapped the foot away, only to have Tonpa chuckle evilly and pit it right back by his nose.

Kurapika woke up to the racket and flying pillows. His eyes followed a pillow that was on a crash course to Leorio's face.

"Huh?" He groaned and looked to see Tonpa close an eye, pretending to be asleep. So naturally he assumed that he kicked him. Also he could smell that foot in his dreams, it gave him a terrible nightmare. He knew it was done on purpose too. "You son of a–" An argument broke out.

Kagero however, was still soundly sleeping in a corner of the room all balled up. Kurapika put a blanket on her and placed a pillow under her head. Killua poked her face getting her to grumble and pull the blanket up.

"Killua. Come on, he's sleeping."

"But his reactions are awesome." He pinched her nose. A few seconds later Kagero's mouth opened for a gasp of air. He didn't expect her to put her arm around his and she moved. He tumbled and ended up lying beside her.

"Ah, G-Gon!" Killua whisper yelled.

"You reap what you sow." Kurapika said with a laugh. Gon poked Killua and laughed also.

"Traitors." He shivered when her breath went down his neck. He felt his face grow warm at the close contact.

They put the TV on and luckily Killua could watch from his position. About a half an hour later Kagero started to stir. "Mmmn…" She nuzzled into Killua, hugging him closer. Killua tensed. _What am I hugging?_ She cracked her eyes open to see white. "Killua? What are you doing?"

"What am _I_ doing? What are _you_ doing!?" He said exasperatedly. "You grabbed me!"

She blushed in embarrassment. "O-oh..." She scratched her head awkwardly. "Well, you were a good hot water bottle. Or teddy bear," she grinned. "How about cuddle cat? Smitten kitten?"

"Oh shut up."

"Pwuffy pwillow?" Kagero offered another. She laughed after getting a pointed look and an eye roll from Killua.

"Food!" Gon bounded up from his seat. The food sort of just appeared from an opening in the wall and it was rather bland, but they were thankful. After eating there was roughly ten minutes left. They all got ready and waited by the door.

"On with our adventure!" Kagero pointed to the ceiling, pretending that there was an open sky with a large sun as the door opened.

 **(Omake)**

"So... you're like a cat." Kagero decided to lighten the mood. Even though she was still depressed about her kill.

"A cat? What makes you think that?" Killua was slightly offended.

"Your retractable 'claws'." Kagero yawned, "Plus you act like a cat sometimes."

Then she thought of something, she grinned evilly and grabbed Killua's wrists. He tried to escape, but couldn't do so without hurting her, then she started moving them around and made it look like he was dancing.

"Cat, I'm a kitty cat, and I dance dance dance, and I dance dance dance."

The four laughed, and Killua was not amused. He scratched Kagero.

"Ah! Bad kitty! Who needs the spray bottle?"

 **(Omake End)**

 **Hello readers! Todays gonna be a double update because I did that to my other chapter so it just wouldn't be fair if I didn't do it to this one too huh? :P**

 **Anywho, I had some inspiration and added some violence, blood, and angst(I keep saying it like angus beef though for some reason…) Nerfed Kagero a bit. But still wanna keep her up there ya know? :P**


	8. Chapter 8

Kagero was the last one to walk out of the room, yawning she followed the others throughout the tower. She probably should have taken the lead. It was a stereotype but women tended to have better senses of direction, and the group she was in just proved that further.

"Hey. Um, if you haven't noticed, we have been running in circles." Kagero yawned, though fully awake.

"We should have taken those stairs down." Killua pointed out.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, tips." Kagero was a bit grumpy about running around and not getting anywhere.

After what seemed to be _hours_ of endless bickering they got to a series of courses down the stairs. One being mine cart things like in Indiana Jones, though going at high speeds and choosing the path as you go down was proven to be hard on the eyes. Then a glowing pathway that lit up as you ran and fell apart behind you. Thirdly there was another Indiana Jones copyright, being the huge bolder rolling down the hallway. If you were not fast enough... _well_...Being crushed by a rolling boulder would not be a very good death.

"Hurry up Leorio!"

"Ahhhh!" Leorio tripped around the bend and jumped in freight when just a second later the boulder that was chasing them rammed into the wall. It was very loud and the floor shook with the impact.

"Ouch!" A fragment of stone cut his cheek. "Aww man… We only have an hour left." Leorio wheezed.

"Let's go then." Kagero started running. "Don't hold up."

"Oi!" Killua yelled.

"Wait!" Gon started running after them.

They arrived at another majority rule point after another very deadly trap. Spikes were shooting out from holes in the wall at intervals, and once again they needed to run at full speed to keep away from their impending death. You could feel the tension as soon as they stopped running. Their tired breaths were the only sound out of their mouths for a minute. Everybody was stressed out and it could break into another argument at the drop of a dime. Kagero saw Leorio shoot Tonpa a dirty look, though the short man didn't notice, hunched over and breathing heavily.

"Hooo, that was a scary run." He wiped the sweat off his forehead and stretched to his full height and saw the screen on the door. "We're supposed to vote on whether to open the door?" Apparently Leorio is always the one to break the silence with his stupidity. "We need to move on. _Obviously_ , we want to open the door." Oh boy. Tired Leorio's a sassy Leorio. That's going to be trouble.

Que button pressing. The result came out in 5 out of 6 want to open the door.

Leorio's eye twitched and he growled, "I've had enough of your crap." He whirred around to face Tonpa and clutched Tonpa's shirt, holding him up in the air. Leorio had to be quite to lift Tonpa. The fatso.

"It wasn't him Leorio." Kagero interrupted his rage, with a wave of her hand. "And stop creating sexual tension with Tonpa. There are _children_ around." She heard Killua snort behind her and a cough from Kurapika. Gon probably just didn't get what she meant.

"K-KAGERO!"

"That was uncalled for." Tonpa said. _Well there's_ one _thing they could agree on._

"Mirage is right! It was me, Sorry, Leorio." Gon pointed to himself. "I accidentally pressed the wrong button."

"Oh, I see." He promptly let go of Tonpa."

"Wait. You owe me an apology. I can't let that slide." Tonpa glared at Leorio. Though didn't come of threatening since it was...Tonpa.

"It's your fault for doing things to make me distrust you." Leorio also glared.

Kagero's face darkened at the development. Gon and Kurapika backed away knowing what would happen next.

"Do you know whose fault it is who cost us those fifty hours?" Gon and Kurapika backed up some more to brace themselves. "Yeah, you!"

"You're the one that keeps holding us up with your fat a—!"

"AHH, shut _UP_!" Kagero snapped, "Just _stop_." She surprised the two bickering people she knocked them upside their heads. "Close those mouths, and stop arguing. That's why I called you two an old married couple in the first place! For one, Tonpa, Leorio knows what he has done—and secondly you _know_ we don't trust you so you should expect this." Kagero stormed into the next room with a huff. "Now if you two _really_ want this relationship to work out in the end, _I'd book an appointment with a therapist_!" She shouted with exasperation from the other room.

"Woah." Killua was shocked. Leorio was scared senseless and Tonpa was dumbfounded, though Gon and Kurapika were fine since they expected this. "Is that normal?"

"He's done it once when Kurapika and Leorio were arguing." Gon laughed lightly.

"Hmm." He looked to the two rubbing their heads with bumps forming. "Well, I'm moving on." He walked out into the next room.

"Oi, Gon, were getting close to the goal." Killua poked his head out the door way after a few seconds of going in the room.

"What? Really?" Gon excitedly ran to the next room.

Leorio and Tonpa both recovered from their lecture, "Wait a _therapist_?!" "Relationship?!"

Everyone else walked into the room to see Kagero sitting by the left side of the room, arms crossed looking at the various weapons on the wall. They were being showcased them for some reason. The room had a statue imbedded into the wall with writing on the wall underneath it. It stated that this choice would be the last decision. Once everyone entered a voice came on the intercom, explaining the two different paths. One is a short path that allowed three people and the other six. The short path was easy and the long hard, both having very different time limits.

The group started debating in what path to take, and tension started to brew in the room. Tonpa edged away from the circle, no one noticing despite his large size, and suddenly brought out a weapon from the wall to launch it at Leorio. Leorio just barely dodged—well actually Tonpa missed, Leorio isn't that observant—and it smashed into the ground, embedding it into the stone. Tonpa was having troubles getting the lance out so he just grabbed a different weapon.

"Woah!" Gon's eyes widened at the sudden animosity.

There was a standstill as Killua, Kurapika and Leorio readied for a fight. The examiner wanted them to fight for the short path. It would work with people who didn't know each other with a free for all. It was a clever and well thought out path that the examiner thought of.

An Idea just went through Kagero's mind. _If those weapons could do that much damage to the floor then maybe… just maybe..._ She walked to Gon and tapped his shoulder.

"Mirage?"

"Hey Gon listen…" She leant down and whispered it into his ear. His eyes widened and he nodded, secretly pressing 'O'. Killua gave strange looks to them with narrowed eyes, Gon seemed to do something when he stretched. His eyes widened when Kagero suddenly disappeared.

"She went behind Kurapika and pressed his button. Kurapika reacted in instinct and went to elbow Kagero. She was already behind Leorio pressing his button. He blinked and looked to his watch.

"Kagero, What. Did. You. Do?" Leorio was enraged.

She got to Tonpa and he already saw what she was about to do so he tried to counter her. She just crossed his arms behind his back and did the same thing.

"Kagero!" Shouted Leorio, he stormed over to her and looked down to her oddly smiley expression with a smouldering one.

"Calm down, we can all pass. Killua press any button." He did so and the long and difficult door opened. She deliberately chose not to try to tamper with Killua's watch. It was a death wish to try to sneak up on Killua in a hostile situation.

"Why did you do that!?" Leorio yelled.

"I _said,_ calm _down_." Her tone went from cheery to dark and threatening. "We can all pass within our time limit." She took a weapon and walked into the hallway. Secretly she sneaked a few others onto her person. A few knives, a cool dagger with a hand guard and blow darts.

"What are you doing Mirage?" Kurapika was curious. She was always full of surprises.

Kagero took the large axe—it was taller than her—and set the head of the axe behind her, the blunt end of it facing her foot. She swung it over her shoulder and kicked the axe to give more momentum. It slammed in at an angle and took a large chunk out of the wall, though it became stuck.

"We can…" Kagero grunted as she yanked at the axe in the wall, "dig through the wall and take the easy paa- _AAHHHTH_!" She fell backwards when the ace suddenly broke away from the wall.

"No kidding..." Leorio dropped his weapon.

After about five minutes of digging Kagero was sick of it. It was taking too long. The wall couldn't have been so thick that it would take so long with six people.

"I have a better idea." The group stopped and looked to her. "Can you guys back away?" They complied, not really wanting to question why.

Kagero took a fighting stance and put all her power into her arm and launched herself at the wall and punched it at full strength. The wall shattered and a hole was left there leading into the other pathway. Kagero took a deep breath and clenched her hand a few times. That would be sore later.

Killua whistled. He could see that in the other path the debris from the impact had damages the wall behind it.

"Let's go then." Kagero walked through the hall. Her hand now bloodied from the excessive force she put into the punch. Her skin around her knuckles was shredded and was covered with blood, it was bleeding quite heavily and was dripping onto the stone floor.

"Are you okay Mirage?" Gon looked to her hand.

"This is nothing. Don't worry." She patted his head with her non-injured hand, and winced inwardly at the stinging from her right hand.

"Want me to patch it up?" Leorio offered with a shake of his brief case.

"Not right now, there's no time! Now hurry up!" She was already running down the hallway. "Come on gu–AH!" She screamed suddenly at a sudden drop she found.

The others, in a panic ran after her, only to experience the same fate.

• • • • • •

"Two more minutes remains" Came the announcement in the waiting room at the bottom of the tower. There were many people, varying from injured to not even touched.

"Looks like it'll just be the 21 of us here." Someone yawned and stretched while lying on the floor. There was nothing better to do and leaning on the wall messed with your back—their butt has fallen asleep multiple times using that method of waiting aimlessly.

The torches flickered in the room and a certain _someone_ smiled oh-so-very creepily. He could hear it.

A door opened and everyone in the room looked to that single open door, there was a faint voice being heard, it got louder and louder as it got closer. It seemed that someone was yelling—or screaming more like it, and it was very many. Oh so _very_ manly. A moment later Kagero rolled out and ran into the wall, head on the ground and body against the wall. "Ugh, that was not fun." She held the back of her head and looked around. Seeing Hisoka she smiled and waved a little with her injured hand. The blood dried from the fast speed she was tumbling down the slide at.

"Kagero, applicant #410, is the twentieth to pass, total time, seventy-one hours." Not even twenty seconds later came the others. "Kurapika, applicant # 404, is the twenty-first to pass. Killua #99, is the twenty-second to pass. Gon, #405, is the twenty-third to pass. Total time, seventy-one hours and fifteen seconds".

"My but hurts!" Killua exclaimed. "I didn't expect a slide for the short and easy path."

"That was really close, ne?" Gon, looked to Kurapika.

"Hey guys!" she grinned from her awkward position, too tired to get up from it.

"My hands are full of blisters." Kurapika blew onto his sore hands.

"Same here." Leorio's voice came from the hallway from the opened door.

Another announcement came on to report Tonpa's and Leorio's passing.

"It would have been worse if Kagero didn't shatter the wall." Killua put his hands in his pockets.

"Our hands are blistered, but all six of us cleared the tower together. All thanks to Kagero!"

"Uh guys?"

"It was Mirage's idea to enter the long and difficult path and cut a hole in the wall, sneaking into the short and easy path through the hole."

"Though he got impatient and just punched it." Gon laughed at Killua's remark.

"…"

"Speaking of which… Where is he?"

"Um, down here."

"What happened to you?" Killua ran up to her and nudged her head with his foot.

"I didn't expect the slide… so when I was running I ended up running off the ledge of it and tumbling down it…"

"Hahaha! That's hilarious!" Killua laughed at her pain.

"Need help up?" Gon reached out a hand.

"Yeah, thanks. At least Gon's _kind_ enough to not _laugh_ at my misfortune." She game a pointed look to Killua. She took Gon's hand to help her up, but her knee gave out and she ended up just lying on the ground. It was actually quite comfortable.

"How did you even think of that path though? I would have never come across that possibility." Kurapika asked.

"Well from the damage the weapons did to the floor..." Kagero stopped and scratched her head and chuckled slightly. "Without Tonpa wanting to immediately kill us with the opportunity I wouldn't have thought of it."

The man mentioned chuckled nervously, "Well all's well that ends well right? Haha."

All five of the glared at Tonpa—well Gon just frowned and narrowed his eyes, but that's probably the closest thing Gon could do.

Since there was some time to kill Kagero meditated and the others did who knows what. The Third phase ended with a buzzer and another announcement.

"The Third phase is over. Twenty-eight applicants have passed. One has died." Then a door opened and applicants started walking out. _That's a surprisingly low death toll for a hunter phase._

"Ahh fresh air!" Kagero was happy and she stretched.

"Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations on having escaped Trick Tower." A man short in stature with a partially bald head with a purple Mohawk and glasses was speaking. "Only the Fourth and Final Phase remain." From the voice they all immediately knew who he was.

He explained where the Fourth phase would be held, on Zevil Island, which was in sight from the base of the tower. He snapped his finger and an assistant of his brought a box and told everyone to draw lots. "This will determine who will hunt and be hunted." In the box was twenty-seven numbered cards and what you got was the one you would hunt. So in short, whatever number you got was the applicant you were hunting based on their ID numbers. "Now, I need you each to draw a card, in the order by which you exited the tower."

He started calling people up and Hisoka walked up, naturally being the first one who passed.

 _Must have been a really long wait._ Kagero honestly felt sorry for Hisoka as he had probably spent seventy hours waiting in that dull room. She spaced out until she was next, she drew a card, and it was blank. Everyone had a card by now and the examiner told everyone to take the white film off of the card.

 _So, I have number 191, Bodoro. Tonpa was talking about him in the first phase. Apparently he is a martial artist like me, though he probably won't know my style._ Kagero looked around and looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"The objective is to steal your target's ID tag."

"So we don't need to kill each other." One of the Amori brothers sighed in relief.

"Naturally, you're free to use any method you choose. Including killing your target and taking the tag off the corpse."

"That sounds like the fastest way." Another Amori brother smirked.

Kagero zoned out but got the gist of the rules, your ID tag is worth three points, same with your target. Other tags are worth one point. You need six points to advance to the Final Phase. Lippo gestured behind him to show everyone that the boat to the island had arrived. It was a good sized boat. Judging from the size it had cabins and rooms like the airship had.

The trip would take approximately two to three hours to get to Zevil Island. The majority of people chose to stay on the deck of the boat, the weather was nice and warm, and the wind felt cool. Though Kagero would have to be careful not to let her wig fly off. That would be a very bad thing to happen.

The guide decided to not talk from the atmosphere given off. Wise choice. The tension in the air was palpable. Killua Gon and Kagero were walking around the walkways of the boat, they stopped at the back of the boat where they watched the waves the boat made in the water.

"So what numbers did you guys draw?" Killua broke the everlasting silence.

"How 'bout you, Killua?" Gon asked.

"Secret." Killua rested his chin on his hand over the railing. "Don't worry. You aren't my target."

"And my target isn't you."

"Same here." Kagero joined in.

"Show each other our numbers at the same time?" Killua proposed.

"Okay!"

"Ready and..." They flipped their cards over. Kagero tried to do something cool with it and the card ended up bending and launched right out of her hand. They all watched it as it flew passed them in the wind.

"Uh… did you guys get to see the number?" She rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

"No…"

"Well do you remember it?" Killua sighed.

"That'd be awful if I forgot it!" She shouted, "But yes I do." She beckoned them to lean over so she could whisper it.

"Oh him, he doesn't seem too hard."

"Oooh. Killua's got some high standards." She laughed at the look she got from Killua. "So what were yours again?" They showed her again. Since her card distracted them they didn't actually get to see the others cards either.

Killua got #199 and Gon got #44.

"Are you—seriously? You have some really bad luck Gon..."

"You know what I would do if I got Hisoka?" They looked at her with questioning looks, "Just leap over this rail here. Bust seriously I would target other people. I'm too young to die."

"Don't make it sound so bad please!" Gon shouted worriedly. Though he looked scared… and excited. Morbidly excited? "So who's your target Killua? I don't recognize the number."

"Ah man… You don't know either?" Killua frowned. He crumpled the card and tossed it off the boat. That way no one could somehow find it.

Kagero poked Killua's side and he jumped. "I do."

"Really!?"

"I'm not telling though."

"Che, stingy."

"Haha, isn't the point of the exam to be a challenge?" She shoved her hands into her pockets, "Welp. I'm going for a walk." Kagero got up and waltzed off.

"Bye!" Gon waved.

She walked to the bathroom and did her business, fixing her wig and her appearance. After making herself look decent she wandered around the boat. Deciding to be daring she jumped onto the railing of the boat and walked around the boat out of boredom. She got weird looks from people and didn't care. Though one person was being especially creepy about is and just stared at her the whole time.

They finally reached the Island and they started departing people in an orderly fashion, and every two minutes the next person would leave.

Finally it was Kagero's turn to go.

"Good luck Mirage!" Gon waved as her form disappeared into the forest.

"Hmm, I guess I'll find a camp site." She talked to herself. After running for a while she found a nice place by a small lake. There was a huge tree and it had roots uplifting from the ground making a little cavern under it. It was small but after a bit of digging it would be a good camp site. She can set up bushes and branches around the holes in the roots to hide her. She made her camp and it was already dark.

 _H_ _mm it would be best if I got some food..._ She sharpened her senses to see if there were any deer or rabbit around. She caught on to one and hid her presence and pounced on the unaware hare. Skinning it back at her little base she set up a small flame inside the tree, the bushes and branches around the tree would disperse the smoke evenly throughout the air and not be able to be seen. After eating she went to sleep, while sleeping she was still on guard, paranoid of anything.

The next morning she went to look for her target but ran into two other people. She took one tag rather easily and the second one put up a fight. She just decided to steal it at night when he was off guard.

After getting her third tag she went back to her base and promptly went to sleep. The next day was a repeat of the first. But she noticed someone following her. She stopped in a clearing and looked around to catch a glimpse of someone in a tree. _He isn't giving off an aura of a threat. Is he an examiner? We were probably all assigned one._ She brushed it off. After walking around the island she ran into some other people but they weren't Bodoro, she was looking for him because she wanted to fight him and test her skills.

On the fourth day she was jumping through the trees and found him.

"Hey," He turned around abruptly to face Kagero. "You're my target, give me the tag or we won't have to fight." She knew that he wouldn't give it up, but it was worth a shot.

"Ironically you are my target as well." He went into his fighting stance and charged at her.

She let him give her a few hits, she guarded of course. And she evaluated that he was a Karate master. She would need to use some redirected forces against this, judo techniques. He threw a punch at her face, she blocked it and she spun around to his back side. Bodoro lifted his leg to kick her in mid-movement but she jumped and landed on his leg. He swung his arm to his backside hoping to make contact but to no avail. Kagero kicked him firmly in the rib and jumped off of his leg to his front side. He sent another barrage of punches to her upper body and face. But Kagero side stepped to dodge and bent his arm, grabbing his fist and twisted it around to his back side. She reached into his internal pocket of his robe and took out the tag. She jumped off of his back. He stood up and tried rushing her again. She ran up and planted a firm punch to his stomach.

"You are a very experienced fighter, I commend you on that." She took out her other two tags, "Here, you deserve them." Then, she disappeared. Well she just jumped high into the trees, hidden by the foliage.

She went back to base since there was nothing else to do. She popped her Mp3 out of her pouch and put one headphone in. She needed to relax a bit.

After a few hours she went hunting again and it got late. _What a beautiful full moon._ She stretched and looked up at the clear night sky. "I need a bath…" She was feeling grungy. _But first..._ She launched herself at top speed to a tree nearby, appearing beside a man with black sun glasses and a black suit. He flinched to see her beside him so suddenly.

"Would you be kind to not watch me bathe mister?" She smiled a threatening smile. He simply replied with an 'Okay.' "Thank you kind Sir." She jumped down from the tree. "I'll let you know when I'm done if you need me to." He nodded.

Kagero proceeded to the part of the lake that was shielded with the most trees. She took her clothing off and folded them neatly by the edge of the lake and took off her wig. She washed her wig first so it would dry faster and proceeded into the water.

"Cold!" She winced.

She took her bandages off and grabbed a bar of soap from her bag and scrubbed her body free of all that dirt. Grabbing that mini hotel shampoo and conditioner bottle she took from the towers bathroom she took her hair net off. Her long dark turquoise and neon blue highlighted hair fell down and floated in the water.

 _It's gotten longer...oh well, father told me to not cut my hair unless it touched the floor…_ She laughed at the memory of her father's seriousness for when she wanted to cut her hair.

Submerging her head underwater she got out all the big chunks of dirt before using the shampoo. After using the shampoo she used the conditioner ad let it sit. Relaxing in the water she felt tingling on her scalp telling her to wash the conditioner out.

Kagero got lost in thought and looked at the full moon. _It was a full moon when I was transferred here hmm. Nevertheless it's beautiful._ Hearing a crack in the bushes she bolted up and yelled, "Who's there!" No answer...

A minute before Killua had just been wandering around aimlessly until he stumbled across a lake, and there was a girl bathing in it, not wanting to invade her privacy he went to walk away but stepped on a twig in panic. His head jolted to the girl when she yelled "Who's there!" jumping up from the water. He could now clearly see her figure gleaming in the light of the moon. Her face was lit in the moonlight making her look like a doll. Though the shadow covered her eyes and they glowed a beautiful emerald green. Her hair was down to her knees and was shimmering in the white light. He caught himself staring and ran as fast as he could in stealth mode, running away from that doll of a girl.

Kagero felt the presence run away at high speeds. _At least they didn't come out._ Kagero took that as a signal that she should get out. She dried herself off and put her shorts on. The proceeded to wrap her arms and upper body with her bandages and put her sweater on, her wig was still wet so she went into the base and dried it with a small fire. Putting her hair up in the net she put her wig on and went to sleep.

• • • • • •

 **UUah there's the first hint of Kagero actually looking like a girl~ Heh heh heh Killua's in for a surprise!**

 **(Omake)**

I have a better idea." The group stopped and looked to her. "Can you guys back away?" They complied.

Kagero took a fighting stance and put all her power into her arm, "I came in like a-" and launched herself at the wall and punched it at full strength, "- _wreaking_ ball!" The wall shattered and a hole was left there leading into the other pathway. "I never hit so hard in love," she winced and shook her hand in pain.

The group paled and anime fell.

"All I wanted was… to break... your walls...?" She blinked to the guys twitching on the ground, "Hey, are you guys alright?

 **(Omake)**


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning was a beautiful morning, clear sky, birds chirping and a nice ocean breeze at that. Kagero was feeling like she wasn't going to get any more exciting encounters until the exam was over—it was a gut feeling but she couldn't be too sure—so it would be best for her to train in the meantime. It wouldn't hurt.

Walking around, Kagero found a huge tree in a condensed part of the forest just a little ways away from the lake. She would continue her jump training. She had her new weights on for about a week now—time seemed to be going by quickly through the exam— and she hadn't really done much with them since. As in training, not the examination—it didn't count as training. Besides, all she had done was running so far and the sparing with Netero. Other than that she didn't get any training in for a week.

It was outrageous.

After getting ready for the exercise, she jumped as high as she could and reached about a third of the trees height, and just sayin' that this tree was _fairly_ large. She was high enough to land on one of the few actually thick branches on the tree. She tried again and went a bit higher and grabbed onto a thinner branch, she did ten pull ups with one arm and ten with the other and let go. She plummeted to the ground and landed as softly and quietly as she could.

She wouldn't want to leave a huge crater in the ground like Netero and how she had in a previous phase. She had to control how her body buckled when landing to adsorb the force properly. Like when you're on a trampoline and someone double bounces you and you go flying. You land and use your knees to adsorb the force so you don't fly off the damn trampoline into the freakin' wall.

After an hour of two of doing this she felt someone's presence getting closer. She jumped to the highest part of the tree and saw that it was Bodoro. Deciding that he wasn't a threat she continued training unless he got closer.

He did indeed get closer and she ran off to another spot around the lake. This area was open and had a flat surface. It would be a good place to practice on her rollerblades. The ground was flat and smooth, but there was enough loose dirt that it would make it difficult.

Kagero cleared the area of debris, such as sticks and larger rocks, and started rollerblading in a circle at a moderate speed. She slipped a few times, but recovered in a breakdancing type of move, legs spinning with enough momentum for a painful kick. After getting the footing right she went and tried spinning and combat forms with them on. Frankly, it was difficult—she had expected as much. It was hard to get a secure footing since they were, well... _wheels_ and that the ground was loose dirt _._ But soon she found out that it was impossible to move right or left without moving forward unless she side stepped. The only other option was to point the foot that she was going to move on in that direction, it hurt pointing them to 90°. That would require the turnout of a dancer and she was _not_ a dancer despite her elasticity. She overturned and _hell_ it hurt her thighs. She was going to be sore since she pulled it too hard.

Soon after finding an alternative to the painful turnout, she got used to spinning on one foot with one wheel. This meant going on your tip toes to lean on the front wheel to have a pivot point. Without that she wouldn't be able twirl on that axis. Like a ballerina. Though it's extremely difficult, if she leaned forwards or backwards Kagero would fall immediately. Kagero found out that she can spin while moving, but the hard part was constantly shifting the center of gravity to move as she spun around.

By the time she got the basics of that down the sun was starting to set. But she wanted to get more hours of training in—she wanted to get some exercise before going back on that blimp—so she hunted. She chased deer and rabbits around, but not by touching the ground. She wasn't floating—it would be amazing if she was— she was jumping off the sides of the trees with her roller-shoes.

Once she caught her food after a tiring game of tag she ate and meditated. Then the moon was up and shining so she went to bed after doing flexibility stretches.

The next few days went on like this until she was training in the trees and caught up so someone. Killua, someone was following him, one of those Amori brothers. Deciding to be the nice guy—girl actually, eh-hem—and seeing that he was all alone, she walked on up to him.

"Hey, Killua."

"Kagero?"

"You know someone's following you right."

"Of course, the idiots stubborn and won't come out." Killua furrowed his brow.

"You shouldn't make that face," She poked the center of his eyebrows and Killua looked up, "Or it'll stick."

"He's getting on my nerves though..." Killua mumbled and sulked oh-so- _very_ -slightly and looked towards the stalker. "Well if you're not coming out, I'll come to you." Killua walked towards the bush that he was hiding in. Kagero followed when two other people appeared. They appeared to be his brothers.

"Oh."

"We ran into a bit of trouble."

"You're done, right?" The two were in their own little world not noticing Kagero and Killua. They looked up to notice them and there was a silence—until they started beating on their own little brother that is.

"You Idiot!" The red one kicked him.

"You can't even beat a little kid?" The yellow one tackled him.

Apparently the one stalking Killua didn't want to hurt a little kid. So he would take it when Killua fell asleep. _Pfft_ like an _assassin_ wouldn't be alert when they slept. They finished their squabble and went to circle Killua. It seemed like they hadn't noticed Kagero until they walked right up to Killua to taunt him. Or they pointedly ignored her and that quite frankly irritated her. She frowned and Killua brushed off his taunt nonchalantly and got sent flying with a kick to the gut.

Kagero whistled. "Killua, that couldn't have hurt, coming from a person like him." Personally... she didn't quite like the brothers that much. She had seen them helping Tonpa 'crushing' a rookie in the first phase.

"Now," the red one started, looking to Kagero with a sneer, "if you don't want the same happening to y—" They were surprised when Killua jumped up from his back and landed on his feet, hands still in pockets. He didn't even feel any pain with that wimpy kick. "Oh, did you go easy on him?" Red bro asked his wimpy blue brother.

Kagero ignored the current situation at hand since she sensed a presence nearby. She looked to the trees to see that ninja guy hidden quite effectively, but that scarf gave him away in the green. She shouldn't be talking, it was hypocritical with her own choice of clothing, but she wasn't going for the _stealthy ninja_ type. Hanzo looked to her and she secretly waved her hand to him with a small smile. He was surprised but waited for his chance to get his tag.

The brothers circled around Killua and he flashed to the back of the red one and took his tag. His nailed sharpened to the point of knives on his neck. "Che _soo_ close! Since it's only a number off from the one I need, maybe number 199 is one of your buddies?" He looked to the yellow one. "Ne, are _you_ number 199?"

Down the side of his face you could see a cold sweat forming. "Yea..."

"Hand it over." Killua put simply. His skillset terrified them into submission.

He tossed the tag over to him." Now for the numbers I don't need." Killua had both tags in one hand and started a throwing motion. Then he switched the numbers and threw it so hard you could hear it make a booming noise after being thrown. Someone in the bushed ran after it. Killua threw the other one the other way.

"Well you guys have two days left until the end. Good luck on finding them!" With that, Killua vanished with pure speed.

"I guess I'll go too." Kagero also vanished.

"Hmmm, what to do, what to do..." Kagero wandered around. "I guess I'll continue training."

Kagero went back to the campsite she made to continue training. She thought that her balance would need work if she was going to use her rollerblades in combat. So she did one legged squats with them on. Once every 20 squats she would switch legs. Then she gave her legs a break and did one handed handstand push ups. She decided that she would add this to her daily training regimen since it was effective. Then, she meditated.

The rest of the day went by normally, no odd encounters and she hunter for food as per usual.

The next day was the last day on the island, the weather was windy and there weren't any clouds in the sky, the sun's light blinding people who looked up to it.

Kagero slept in and got up around noon, ten at the earliest. She hid her presence and went to the starting point. She found Leorio and Kurapika but decided to stay hidden, until Gon showed up.

They were talking about Leorio's target, and how Gon would be able to track her down by scent. The girl Ponzu used chemicals in battle and those have strong scents. Kagero didn't want to get caught up in this, but she wanted to say hi before they left. So she jumped down.

"Mirage!?" Kurapika and Leorio were both surprised.

"I overheard you, so, you didn't get your tag yet Leorio?" She teased him, getting something like a growl in return.

"You got yours Mirage?" Gon asked.

Kagero nodded. "Quite a while ago." She looked to the boat. "Off to find Leorio's target?"

"Un!"

The three left leaving Kagero by herself. She wandered further in the forest so she could find a resting spot that no one would find easily. Relaxing in a tree she started to doze off. About an hour later she jolted awake, why? Because she sensed a dangerous aura in the area. She could bet on whom it was, Hisoka and Gittarakur. She thought Hisoka wasn't that bad but Gittarakur oozed peril. She didn't bother hiding her presence because it would only alert the two. So she just waited and hoped that they would ignore her. Well, nope. They took note of her presence and before they decided to kill her she came out from the hidden compartment in the tree tops.

Jumping down she said. "It's just me." She looked to the two. "I'm not here for your tags, and I'm sure you both have yours."

"Hisoka...Who...is this?" Gittarakur's head shook as he moved. Frankly, it was creepy.

"Well, well, if it isn't Mirage." He put a hand on his hip and a hand to his chin. "Why are you here?"

"Well I _was_ here to take a nap. But then you guys came along." Kagero faked a smile. "Good timing though, they're about to end the phase." Just as she finished her sentence the announcement came on.

Kagero started walking back to the part of the island where they started off at, Gittarakur and Hisoka following her. With the three of them there was an uncomfortable silence.

"Hisoka, _please_ stop staring at me." Kagero turned around and walked backwards. She could feel his eyes burning her back. "This is why Gon and Killua view you as a pedophile." Hisoka started laughing. Gittarakur just stared at her too—probably thinking that Kagero has to be insane or mentally ill, probably both, to talk with them nonchalantly.

"Also you, Gittarakur." Hisoka stopped laughing to hear what she had to say. "You aren't as bad as Hisoka, but that costume... It's plain creepy." Kagero's eyes widened as her sixth sense picked up slight malice. She vanished away in the trees running as fast as she could since she could tell he was strong. _Wouldn't want to pick a fight with him_.

Even though she just did.

"Aww~, Illumi, you scared Kagero"

"Why did he get so agitated..." Kagero pouted internally as she ran. She was almost to the site and was one of the first ones there. Hanzo and Pokkel were there. She laid on the grass until more people showed up. Then Killua showed up and sat down beside Kagero. Then came Bodoro , Hisoka and Gittarakur.

The women came out to check the tags of everyone who has arrived.

#410, Kagero. #410, #191.

#44 Hisoka. #334, #80, #281, #118.

#53, Pokkle. #53, #105

#99, Killua. #99, #199.

#301, Gittarakur. #301, #371.

#191, Bodoro. #34, #37, #59, #153, #408, #270.

#294, Hanzo. #294, #198, #362, #89.

The lady announced those who passed when three other people came out from the bushes. Killua looked ecstatic to see a slightly tattered Gon. Kurapika and Leorio were in tatters too. Killua gave Gon a thumbs up, and Kagero just waved to them from her spot laying on the ground.

#404, Kurapika. #404, #16.

#403, Leorio. #403, #246.

#405, Gon. #405, #44.

The lady tallied their tags. "These ten applicants have passed the fourth phase of the exam!" She rose her arm up to the blimp up in the air.

Everyone got on to the airship and had dinner.

Meanwhile Netero and the other examiners were having dinner and were talking about the trend that a whole bunch of rookies would pass the exam, it happened once every few years. Then they talked about the next phase, though Netero was thoroughly vague with it.

Kagero was in the dining room with Killua eating when an announcement came on.

"The chairman wished to interview the remaining candidates. When your number is called, please cone to the first reception room, on the second floor. Then we will start with #410, Kagero-sama."

"Oh, you were fist to get to the starting point?"

"Mmmhmm." She nodded. It was only because she bolted the hell away from the dynamic duo that she did, but whatever. Kagero got up and put the last of her food in her mouth. She walked off waving.

Walking into the room the first thing she saw was an old man with weird facial hair and eyebrows. "Well, what do you have planned now?"

He chuckled. "Well, have a seat first."

"Question and answer time?"

"Precisely. Now, first, why do you want to become a Hunter?"

"Honestly?" She sighed. "I didn't come here on my own free will, I just sort of joined. But I soon found my resolve of finding my mother. I'm happy that I came here, as I have made good friends... So... I'll get to experience new things, I guess." She scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"Which of the other eight applicants are you keeping an eye on?"

"Hmm, a lot of people actually." Kagero held her chin thinking and rested her elbow on the table. "Number 405, 404, 403 and 99 because they're my first friends. And number 44 and 301 because there interesting... Oh and number 191, he's a talented martial artist."

"Which of the other applicants would you least want to fight?"

"Who I don't want to fight? No one in particular. Though number 44 and 301 I don't think I would be able to beat. I feel that I'm lacking something compared to them. Not in physical ability but... I can't explain it..."

"Ok, good job, you may leave now."

Kagero got up and walked down the halls to go to the lobby, or anywhere with a couch and crashed on it. It was already evening and she desperately wanted to sleep on something that was actually comfortable. She had no idea why she hadn't thought of this on the ride to the trick tower. Those rooms were cramped and uncomfortable, crashing on the couch in the lounge was much better.

By this time everyone has been taken in for the question taking. The group was walking down the hall when they walked into a lounge to see Kagero sleeping away. She was curled up on the couch curled up into a ball and hugging a pillow.

Leorio was trying his best to not laugh and was doing well. Then Killua started poking her face and she burrowed her face into the pillow. They decided to follow her lead and lay on the other couches around. Heck it beat the hard floor in the rooms they had before.

The next day the airship landed at a fancy hotel and everyone was called down to a huge room in the hotel.

"This hotel is owned by the Hunter Exam Selection Committee. The place is all yours until the battles have concluded." Someone rolled something like a chalk board on wheels and was covered by a cloth. "For the Final Phase, we will be holding a one-on-one tournament." He pulled the cloth off of the board.

"So the last person standing passes?"

"No. One win is all you need to pass. The winners are removed from competition, while the losers continue up the bracket. In other words, the person who finishes at the top will not pass. Does everyone understand now?"

"So you're saying that only one person will fail." Hanzo said for confirmation.

"Exactly." There was a bit of a silence. "And here is the bracket." He pulled off the taping that blocked the bottom to let them see the standings. "Impressive, right? After all, everyone has at least two chances to win."

"But some people, like #294 and #410 get six chances."

"Why didn't you use a balanced bracket?"

"A question that must be on everyone's mind. This bracket was assembled based on your performances throughout the entire exam. Those who performed better received more chances."

This seemed to strike a nerve in Killua. "That doesn't sound right. Can you explain how you scored out performances?"

"Hmm... _Nooooo_!" Netero yelled effectively ticking Killua off.

"Why not!" Killua hissed.

Netero laughed. "Your scores are classified information. So I can't tell you everything, but I can explain our methods." The room's atmosphere intensified. "First, we consider three major criteria: physical strength, mental strength, and overall impression. For physical strength, we use an aggregate of agility, flexibility, endurance, and perception. For mental strength, we use an aggregate of resilience, adaptability, judgment, and creativity. However, this information in only used as a reference point. After all, you were strong enough to advance to the Final Phase. However, we are most concerned with your overall impression. This refers to any intangible factors not previously mentioned." He laughed. "You could consider this an evaluation of your potential as a hunter. And we also incorporate the opinions of your peers. That was our process."

Halfway through the speech Kagero sat down on the floor. By the end of it she her head was on her arm that was on her knee and was relaxing. She yawned multiple times during the explanation and was still yawning.

"The battle rules are quite simple. Weapons are allowed. No cheating. If your opponent admits defeat, you win. However! If you kill your opponent, you will be immediately disqualified. All remaining applicants will pass, and the exam will end. Are we clear?"

Kagero was the only one who replied. "Crystal."

"Then, we shall begin the exam's Final Phase."

Kagero was warming up for the fight as she stretched doing the splits and pulled he leg up while doing them. Hanzo just cracked his wrist.

"The first match is Hanzo versus Kagero. Please step forward." The two came forward and had a small stare down, nothing too intimidating. "I will serve as the referee. My name is Masta. Best of luck."

"Hey, good to see you again." Hanzo surprised the man with his casual talk, "You were tailing me during the Fourth Phase."

"You noticed?"

"Naturally..."

"Ah, that reminds me." Kagero looked to one of the people in black, specifically to the man who was tailing her. "Thanks for not peaking on me. Also I'm sorry I forgot to tell you when I was done." Kagero smiled hoping to get the guys forgiveness.

"I noticed you were done after a while, no worries."

After their little conversation Hanzo was still talking to Masta.

"Well, shall we start Hanzo-san?"

"Yes, but first, I have a question. We only win if our opponent surrenders, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct."

Kagero was thinking that they weren't that different in physical ability. It would come down to how creative they were.

"Then, it's time."

Hanzo got into a slight stance and Kagero just stood normally. The room was tense as the spectators were in their own little worlds trying to figure out who would win.

"Begin!"

 **(Omake 1)**

"I overheard you, so, you didn't get your tag yet Leorio?" She teased him, getting something like a growl in return.

"You got yours Mirage?" Gon asked.

Kagero nodded. "Quite a while ago." She looked to the boat. "Off to find Leorio's target?"

"Un!"

"Well then Leorio, I guess you'll just have to _charm_ your way into his heart!" She cackled as she ran away from Leorio.

 **(Omake 1 End)**

 **P.s: If you guys don't remember, the snake charmer was Leorio's target, thus the pun.** **I just remembered that Ponzu was Leorio's target—I wrote the friggen thing, so how could I forget? Anywho—I'm gonna keep the Omake anyways because I like the pun.**

 **(Omake 2)**

"Ah, that reminds me." Kagero looked to one of the people in black, specifically to the man who was tailing her. "Thanks for not peeking on me."

"I noticed you were done after a while, no worries."

"Thank _God_ , because I couldn't have the fact that I'm a girl out yet..." She blinked at the absurd reactions she was getting. "Well the cats out of the bag, Killua would you be a darling and _cat-_ ch it for me? Haha."

"Don't just play it off with a double pun!" People yelled as they anime fell.

 _She must have planned that,_ Hisoka thought absently, chuckling.

 **(Omake 2 End)**

 **Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, I've been focused on The Musician—another story of mine—and I've been having some trouble editing this for some reason.**

 **I'll try to update again in a week or two.**

 **Taa taa,**

 **and please,**

 **don't forget to review~**


	10. Chapter 10

"Begin!" The ref called out.

Nothing happened for the longest time, the room was tense for a while until Kagero spoke.

"What, are we deciding who wins through a _staring_ contest?" Leorio and others laughed at her sarcasm. Kagero shot Leorio a mock glare.

Hanzo took the bait when she looked over to Leorio. He charged at her at an alarming speed. Hanzo attacked her landing hits but they were doing no damage to Kagero. She made it look like she got damaged by holding the area and coughing or cringing and glaring. But in reality she adsorbed the force of the blow by moving in certain ways getting minimal damage.

Kagero backed away from him, acting scared. "St-stay away from me!" She held her head trying to look insane.

Hanzo charged at her once again hoping to knock more fear into Kagero. Though she set this up knowing he would do what he just did. Kagero looked to Hanzo who was charging at her with a fake, but very believable, shocked face. She moved in a certain way that her hood would fall down to let them see her face so he would fall for her ploy. He went to punch her in the head but she disappeared in the last moment and he struck air. She jumped over him getting out of his field of vision and struck his back with wheels that were put away right after. He fell to the ground with a bang leaving a few cracks in the ground.

Kagero walked beside him and helped him up. "Hmph, that's for underestimating me," then flashed a fake smile.

"You go get him Kagero!" Leorio yelled.

"You can do it Mirage!" Gon cheered.

"Che, good acting." Hanzo glared at her irritably.

"Thanks, I pride myself on it." Kagero's tone and smile were dripping with sarcasm. "Now if you don't want to lose I would get serious, Ninja-kun."

The battle began once again when this time Kagero disappeared from Hanzo's sight.

He looked around for a second when his head snapped upwards thinking that she jumped above him a second time. But in reality she did the opposite and reappeared behind him. To get the effect of disappearing in Hanzo's point of view, she ran towards him and crouched really low to get out of his field of vision and appeared behind him. In Hanzo's eyes it would have looked like she was charging at him and suddenly vanished.

He recovered a second too late when he turned around and was met with a kick to the gut. He grabbed her leg and tried to break it but Kagero was not going to let it happen. She arched her back until her hands could grasp Hanzo's ankles. Some of the people watching gasped at the flexibility shown. She twisted out of his grasp before his knee came up to break her leg. She put her leg on his knee and pushed it down still grabbing his ankles. She let go of the leg that was getting sent down and she jumped away before he was forced into the splits. Turns out he was flexible too though Leorio cringed at him doing the splits.

Frankly Hanzo was pissed off. She was just toying with him. He glared at her. "If you want me to be serious, I'll be serious." His glare intensified.

He ran at her, throwing punches to and fro and the odd kick that caught her off guard. She blocked almost all the hits but when he suddenly sped up he kicked her side. She coughed and hunched over holding her ribs. He grabbed her arm and proceeded to break it where her guards were. She twisted her arm before he kneed it so his knee hit the guard. A sickening snap was heard throughout the room. It wasn't her arm though. She broke some things in her pocket as he kneed her arm guard to make it seem like it was broken.

Kagero gasped and grit her teeth, making it look like she was in pain. She crouched down and held her arm.

"Kagero! We know you're strong but he's too much for you! If you forfeit now you might still win your next fight!" Leorio yelled. Kagero turned her head and smirked at Gon, Leorio, Kurapika and Killua who were watching her intently. _Hopefully they got the message,_ Kagero thought. She wanted to let them know that she was fine without Hanzo knowing.

She went back to acting. "But, i-if I do that," she staggered as she got up, arm hanging and breath unstable, "I'll have to...Fight Gon!" She panted in-between breaths.

Hanzo waltzed up to her thinking that she was in too much pain to attack again. "Forfeit, or I'll break your other arm." He grabbed her other arm.

Kagero decided to pull a Gon. "NEVER!" She shouted and tried to kick him.

Another sickening crack was heard throughout the room, and once again, she broke something in her pocket. She screamed this time and cringed. She hiccupped in fake pain and glared at Hanzo with teary eyes.

"Kagero!" Leorio yelled again. _Well... he sure didn't get the message._

"Sh-shut up...Leorio, I'm f-fine." She hoaxed up tears and coughed violently.

Hanzo pulled out his hidden blades, and started lecturing her about his training and such. Kagero took the chance of him being off guard and charged at him, arms dangling at her sides.

"Wha-!"

Kagero started with a barrage of kicks and he blocked them all. She stopped and walked closer to him looking up at him. He looked taken aback from the sudden pause in action.

"..."

Then in a blink of an eye she punched him square in the jaw sending him flying upwards, though in the process his blades ripped her sweater open.

"Awww, damn it. My mother's sweater..." She sulked. Meanwhile the crowd was baffled. She took off her sweater and threw it to Gon and he caught it. "Would you be able to hold it for me?" Gon only nodded, still surprised that her arms were not broken. Then she took off her ankle weights and wrist weights, and threw them to the side. They fell with an ear ringing bang, leaving a crater in the ground underneath them.

Now without her sweater she had a loose mens' blue tank top and her bandages were wrapping from her waist up to her chest, there were also bandages on her arms up to her upper arm area, close to the shoulders. You could also see scars surrounding her ankles and wrists from the weights. You can tell that she has worn weights all her life.

Kagero cracked her fingers and rubbed her ankles and wrists.

Hanzo started getting up. "H-how?"

"You never broke them in the first place." She pointed to her arm guards. Then pulled out the pencils and other things she broke in her pocket and dropped them. She smiled. "You just thought you did because of the noise."

Hanzo, who was currently dumfounded, was then charged at and Kagero attempted a flying double side kick and nailed him in rib, or so she thought. Hanzo pulled his arm in at the last second, blocking the kick from hitting a vital area, though his arm was injured in the process, a large bruise forming.

He pulled out his other hidden blade thinking that making her bleed was a good way to scare her. She lunged at her and she dodged but he followed up with another slice to her leg. Quick on her feet, Kagero brought her own hidden blade out for a mere second to block and it was retracted afterwards. With her weights gone, she was light enough for her to use her flexibility without the toll. It also increased her speed considerably.

The sound of metal on metal was heard throughout the room as that happened multiple times. Hanzo was confused and decided to go for a punch for the head. Naturally she did dodge, but he used his other arm for a hook that came from out of her peripheral view. She sensed it at the last second and barely dodged it.

But, it grazed her head.

And you know what happened?

Her wig was cut and it fell off, tumbling to the floor. Her long hair—that barely fit in there even with the most extreme of methods—came down with the wig not there to hold it in place.

Hanzo backed away, face unmistakably pale. Clearly everyone in the room was surprised, the raised eyebrows and ajar mouths giving the emotion away. Well... except for Hisoka, he already found out.

"I... I've been getting pummeled by a mere _GIRL_?!" Hanzo voiced out.

"Oh, so you admit it? Being pummeled by me?" Kagero scoffed with a hand on her hip, her hair swaying with the movement. "A _**mere**_ girl?" Kagero's voice was coated in venom. "I'm _so_ going to maim him." She mumbled, cracking her knuckles and those with sharp ears heard it, both her words and her knuckles. Hanzo paled even further and took a step back.

"K-Kagero's a girl?!" Leorio mumbled. He stumbled and leaned against the wall.

Gon recovered from his slight shock. "Mirage is still Mirage, Leorio!" Gon exclaimed happily.

Kurapika wasn't that surprised of her being a girl, in fact he sort of expected it. Her hair was incredibly long and reached down to her thighs. Her hair seemed to glow in the light of the room.

Killua wasn't paying attention—he was staring at her like many other applicants. Killua blushed slightly as he remembered the girl from the lake. _Kagero's the girl I saw at the lake!_ He was caught up in his thoughts when he sensed aura from Hisoka.

Hisoka was excited. Kagero was showing an absurd amount of potential in the fight. Her true appearance made him think her as ' _cute_ '... He thought that she wouldn't like him to call her that and chuckled creepily to himself.

"..." Kagero was staring at Hanzo who was in turn staring back at her. "... _E-nough_! Build a bridge, _and get over it_!" She snapped.

She charged at Hanzo with her hidden blades out since he had his out. She slashed at him and he blocked with his blade. That's when she retracted her other blade and grabbed Hanzo's shirt and proceed throwing him out of the room. She threw him towards the door, she ran up to him, while he was still in midair flying towards the door and kicked him to add enough power that the doors would open. She ran to the door and turned to the light switch. She looked to Hanzo and smiled evilly then turned her head to the group watching, the group's faces paled thinking of what she would do, and wither it was against the rules or not—it wasn't specified so if she got in trouble for it she could blame them for not telling them—she promptly turned the lights off.

When Hanzo walked back into the room he was suspicious because the lights were off, and he didn't see her in the room from the light coming in through the door. That's when the doors suddenly slammed closed. Kagero silently ran to the other side of the room and put her rollerblades on.

Hanzo walked to the middle of the room and closed his eyes, he couldn't see so it would be better to use his ears.

"Is that...The sound of wheels?" He thought aloud.

"Correct." A voice came from right beside his ear and the voice was clearly amused. He went to hit where the voice came from but hit air as she vanished.

For the next minute he could hear the faint sound of wheels before he got used to the darkness. When he opened his eyes he gasped. She was at her top speed circling around him. Some people in the crowd also gasped. _Most likely they have gotten used to the darkness._

Kagero zoomed to Hanzo and he went to jump over her but she started spinning and jumped also hitting him with a successful combo of kicks. Then she grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him upwards. She went to the light switch again with her eyes closed and turned them on then off. This would mean everyone's eyes would have to re adjust to the darkness.

Kagero was having fun. It was the first time she's had _fun_ in a fight in a long time. She opened her eyes to not notice that they were glowing. Her emerald eye color was altering back and forth from green to aqua marine.

She went to attack Hanzo but somehow he could see where she was. When she went to block a punch to the head she noticed light on her arm. So she rollerbladed backwards away from him and brought her hands up to her face. Her hair that was flying around also caught her eye. Her highlights were glowing too, very faintly, but they were.

"What...What is this?" She suddenly snapped back to attention when Hanzo was about to punch her. She turned the lights on as her plan failed because of her eyes.

Deciding to end this she charged at Hanzo, she went on her front wheel and started spinning towards him and bent down holding one leg in to build momentum and jumped releasing her leg, effectively nailing him in the thigh. He clutched his leg in pain. Kagero continued spinning around him. He recovered from his pain. She was cartwheeling around him doing unpredictable acrobatic movements with her flexibility. When he thought a punch was going for his head a foot would come up and hit him on the collar bone. Same for when he went to punch her she grabbed his fist and adsorbed the impact causing her to move faster on her wheels. When she did that she pulled his fist to the ground causing Hanzo to stumble.

Kagero swung her fist at him spinning and made her hair fan out in front of his face. Temporarily blinding him, she kicked his most precious and most guarded spot.

The groin.

He let out a scream of pain.

The audience cringed.

"Do you give up?" Kagero huffed clearly irritated. She was getting tired and dizzy from all the spinning she's been doing.

He couldn't answer but he shook his head, he was in too much pain to talk. She walked up to him, who was on his hands and knees cringing in pain.

"I can kill you with this and try again next year." Kagero bluffed, unsheathed one blade from her guards.

"You're bluffing."

"Oh really? Hmmm, _well_ I guess you _are_ right, but, "she gestured her blade to the... lower section of his body, "I guess you don't want children, or any of that _hanky panky_ adult stuff, huh?" She grinned maliciously—acting obviously.

"I- I forfeit." He huffed out.

"Thought so."

"You are too unpredictable for me..."

"Thanks!" Kagero smiled. "Also you were right the first time, it was just a bluff! Well same for the whole ' _threatening to cut off your manly bits_ ' thing, it was a bluff too." She made a face, "I'm not _that_ morbid."

The judge announced the winner.

She got her sweater she waltzed back to the group. The sweater was still ripped but somehow it started repairing it's self when Kagero held it.

"Ne ne Mirage, that was amazing!" Gon praised Mirage. Kagero patted Gon's head.

"So...the majority of it was an act?" Leorio was still confused about her little...performance.

"Yup." Kagero stated bluntly. "Umm, why aren't you asking why I hid the fact that I'm a girl?"

"Well..." Leorio started. "Kurapika explained that being a girl here, you would get undesirable attention. Also that girls are presumed to be feeble."

" _Ooh_ , fancy words!" Kagero teased Leorio. He glared at her and muttered 'shut it'.

"Plus! _Plus_!" Gon came in. "Mirage is still Mirage!" Gon added cheering Kagero up.

"That's part of it," The group cocked their heads to the side. The other applicants were listening in, ears open, same with the examiners. "I've been raised as a boy since I could remember. Four I think? Yea, since I was four. My father owns this dojo you see, and I'm his only child so I would be his successor. But...I'm a girl, and a _girl_ can't run a dojo." She sighed. "Anyways, I'm happy, because of that I got to meet you guys here." She smiled.

Killua and Leorio blushed slightly. Gon smiled happily and Kurapika also smiled.

Kagero's eyes were still flickering between the two colors and the others just came to realize that.

"Your eyes..." Kurapika was in shock. He thought she was a survivor of the Kurata clan just like himself.

"Kurapika. I know for sure, that I'm not a Kurata." Kagero's energy started to fade away. "My eyes are green, and turned blue, not red," on the verge of passing out she mumbled something. "I'm...not even...from here..." and she fell asleep.

Kagero had a weird dream. She was in a blank white space floating. There were images of streams waterfalls and leafs with rain on them dripping off. Then a figure came into her dream; a woman with long hair very similar to her own.

"Mo...ther?"

The women opened her arms.

Kagero ran up to her.

"Is it really you?"

"Yes, Kagero." Her face was shaded out. Kagero went to hug her but she passed through her mother.

"Why...Why are you here?"

"I do not have much time. I only came here because of the sweater. I have a special power that I passed down to you. Once you awaken you will have another dream similar to this one."

"I see...?"

"It is time for me to go, you are waking up."

Light came in to Kagero's view when she saw Killua walking up to Leorio and Bodoro. _I'm guessing it's time for their fight. But Killua's acting strangely..._ She noticed Killua's facial expression. _Damn it, he reverted._ He used to be an assassin after all. It was like the time in the airship. His eyes were all dark'n emotionless.

She bolted from her position on the wall.

People were startled when Killua was suddenly behind Bodoro. Kagero appeared in front of Killua and behind Bodoro grabbing Killua's sharpened and deadly hand by the wrist. She successfully stopped him.

Killua didn't spare them a glance and left.

Kagero wavered. She got up to fast that the blood rushed to her head and she lost vision for a bit. Leorio helped walk her to the wall again.

"Damn he left. Did something happen to him? Wait let me rephrase that...What happened while I was asleep?"

"Gon won his fight but got injured. I also won my fight and Killua had a fight with his brother." Kurapika transcribed what happened in the fight.

"Hmm..." Kagero looked to Illumi and Hisoka... "They have something...we don't..." Kagero mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing Leorio... Nothing." She sighed. "...Mind if I sleep?"

"Not at all, just get a bed."

"Hai hai." Kagero walked off to find a room to sleep in.

She got to the bed and flopped on the comfy mattress and blankets and passed out in the fluffiness.

 **(Omake)**

There was a blood curdling scream. She crouched down and held her arm, still acting. She looked confused for some reason before seeing a black thing on a ledge on the ceiling.

"Kagero! We know you're strong but he's too much for you! If you forfeit now you might still win your next fight!" Leorio yelled.

Kagero blinked, eyes wide and frightened "But...That wasn't my scream..." She said, voice shaky in 'fear'.

There was another scream, a high pitched shrill. People paled considerably, a person even fainted.

"W-what's going on?!" That was Leorio's voice.

Kagero started shaking. Then another scream pierced throughout the room, some person screamed.

Then Kagero couldn't hold it in any longer, she fell to the ground, laughing. "Everybody's reactions, hahaha, w-were so priceless! Hahaha!" The bird flew around the room, imitating her laugh. "It-it must have followed me f-from the marsh." She was still laughing. Hanzo was too dumbfounded to do anything, he just stood there, frozen.

The people who hadn't fainted were needless to say quite amused.

 **(Omake End)**

 **I think this has been one of my best Omake's yet. :P**

 **Also from a guest review I was asked what an Omake is. It's a little special done a the end of manga chapters. The Omake's I do are completely irrelevant to the actual story and is just for the sake of comedy. I just redo parts from that chapter and make it ridiculous. xD**


	11. Chapter 11

**-Dreamscape-**

Kagero looked around to see a vast field of light blue flowers. Shattering into silver pieces, the petals followed the wind in a fierce but beautiful dance. Metal on metal could be heard from the friction of the flower petals. The wind blew around her body and the silver petals surrounded her and formed to her body. It moved freely, flowing around her very smoothly as she moved around the field.

The world started to fade away into a bright light as Kagero opened her eyes.

She stretched still lying down, _What a weird dream... Good thing it wasn't another nightmare..._ She had been having a lot of nightmares lately. She yawned and looked to the bedside table and saw a bright yellow sticky note that was basically screaming 'read me'.

 _Kagero the meeting starts at 3:00 if you're up by then come down to the meeting room down the hall and to the left._

 _-Kurapika and Leorio_

Kagero got up to notice that it was almost time for the meeting and walked to the meeting room. While she was walking she put her hair in a low, loose ponytail just to keep her hair out of her face.

"I should get a new wig soon..." Kagero sighed and entered the room to see no one there yet. Going up to the front row she sat down and rested her head on her arm and dozed off.

Hisoka walked into the room to see the sleeping form of Kagero and chuckled to himself. Gittarackur came right after him and didn't spare her a glance, or that's what you might think. She interested him no doubt.

Then the examiners came in and proceeded to walk down the stairs to the miniature stage. The examiners giggled at Kagero's innocent face as she slept. She even talked in her sleep muttering weird things such as 'no don't eat my candy stash' or 'stop acting like a derpy schoolgirl.' Of course they were related to her father. Yes he was a serious man, though he had his moments.

The other examinees came in, then Kurapika and Leorio. Kurapika sighed at the sight of Kagero.

She didn't wake up until Gon came barging in the room and Kagero jolted awake. He woke her up from a nightmare and for that she was grateful. Walking down the stairs, Gon met face to face with Illumi.

"Apologize to Killua!" Gon said in anger.

"Apologize? For what?"

Kagero was too tired to pay attention until Gon grabbed Illumi's arm and threw him over himself.

"He doesn't need to earn the right to be my friend!" Gon tightened his grip on Illumi's arm. Surprisingly, he broke it.

"Hn, what's going on..." She rubbed her eyes and yawned. The people watching the scene unfold sweat dropped.

"Don't bother apologizing. Just take me to see Killua." Gon said stubbornly.

"What will you do then?"

"That should be obvious...I'm going to rescue Killua!"

By this time Kagero was almost fully awake. "I want to rescue him too."

Illumi glanced at Kagero. "You make it sound as though I kidnapped him..."

Kagero interrupted. "Correction, kidnapped his _mind_." She emphasized the _mind_ part. "Or manipulated, yeah, that's a better term."

Illumi ignored her and continued. "He walked away on his own."

"But it wasn't by choice. He was being manipulated by you people just as Mirage said. It's the same as kidnapping him!" Gon was about to lash out.

Netero took a step forward. "We happened to be discussing this very subject, Gon."

"Really?" Kagero voiced out by accident. Still being sleepy and all. She was asleep throughout the whole discussion, so obviously she didn't know what was going on.

"Kurapika and Leorio have both lodged complaints. The committee has been discussing the fairness of Killua's disqualification."

Kurapika stated his argument about Killua not behaving like himself after the battle with Illumi. Kurapika believed that Killua was hypnotized into almost committing murder. "If it wasn't for Kagero he would have murdered Bodoro." Kagero tilted her head at the sound of her name.

Leorio stood up to point out that he might have been trying to help him out.

"Thus he should not have been disqualified!" Kurapika finished his argument.

"That's not the problem here." Kagero looked to Netero and pointed her thumb to him. "I bet he doubts that Killua was hypnotized in the first place... There was no need for Killua to interfere. You guys are asking the wrong questions. The correct one would be _why_ did Killua interfere?" Kagero glanced to Illumi and narrowed her eyes. Netero took note of what she said.

Pokkel then started to lash out in his own way by pointing out the way Kurapika passed. He also thought he was obligated to know what Hisoka said to him. Well suck it up buttercup, it ain't any of your business.

By this time Gon was ready to snap. Same with Kagero, she had just woken up from a nice and peaceful nap to find a whole group of people arguing while chaos ensued. Anyone would be grumpy if they woke up to that.

"None of that matters..." Gon muttered.

Then Hanzo started to complain too.

Kagero put her hands on her ears getting weird looks from the examiners. She felt the need to cover them before Gon busted her ear drums.

That's when Gon came in, "None of that matters!" He yelled, "It's pointless to argue over whether someone should or shouldn't have passed."

"When Killua retakes the Hunter Exam, he _will_ pass." Kagero finished Gon's statement.

"What does matter...If you've been forcing Killua to kill, against his will, all this time, I'll make you pay!" Gon's voice got even darker as he finished the last part.

"Make me pay? What, exactly, will you do?" If you paid attention and listen _very_ closely, you would have heard Illumi scoff.

"I won't do anything. Only, once I rescue Killua, I'll never let you see him again!"

"We Gon, _we_. Plural, _us_." Kagero corrected Gon's sentence.

Then until further notice Kagero decided to be the bystander. Until she sensed something from Illumi, it felt like malice or this unknown pressure trying to influence them.

She abruptly stood up. "Gon!" Gon then sensed it and jumped away.

Cue dramatic pause.

"Ahem, is everyone finished?" Netero glanced around the room to make sure people settled down before continuing. "Gon is absolutely correct."

Kagero promptly tuned Netero out as she already knew what he was going to say, through prediction of course. She would just ask about it later so she put her head down on the desk and a new voice came in. The voice slowly faded as she dozed off.

"Mirage... Mirage!" Gon shook Kagero's shoulders.

"Hnn?" Kagero rubbed the crusted sleep out of her eyes, "Hey Gon..." she stretched and yawned, "The ceremony over?"

"Un." He nodded.

Kagero looked across the room to see the examiners still there. "Gon, you meet up with the others, I'll be right there." She walked to Netero.

"Ahn, what is it?" He smiled at her.

"Netero, do you know a Leidra Kazuma?"

"Leidra? Yes, why?" _Why would she need business with_ her _of all people?_

"I'm... her daughter and I'm searching for her, just wondering if you know any hints of where she is, or resides."

"Ahh, so she has a daughter." He said reminiscing about the past, "Last time I heard of her was in Yorkshin a while back."

"So she most likely won't still be there..." Kagero finished.

"So you're her daughter, no wonder you two look alike." Satotz came into the conversation.

"You know her too Satotz-san?"

"I _knew_ her quite well," Satotz meant in past tense and corrected Kagero. "She's a three star hunter. Leidra-san did many things to contribute to the world." _Not anymore though..._

"Mirage! Kurapika said he wants to meet up!" Gon yelled into the room.

"Be right there!" Kagero yelled back. "Oh, one more thing," She turned to the examiners, "What's the power you guys have...You are different from Gon and the others, same with Hisoka and Illumi." The examiners looked to each other. "Illumi did something to Killua right?" There was no answer. She sighed, "Then did it hurt him in any way?"

"No."

"Then that's all I need to know." She smiled and walked off only to pop her head back in the room grinning widely. "Thanks!" She waved, "And hope to see you guys again soon!"

Kagero walked in on Gon and Illumi talking.

"Do they feel the same way?"

"Yup!" Kagero smiled, she had no clue to what they were talking about. But from Gon's outburst she could take a guess to what it was.

"You bet!" Leorio actually looked kinda cool.

"Fine. I doubt you'll be able to make it there anyway. Killua went home. Kukuroo Mountain. Our family lives at the very top."

"Got it. Thanks." Gon walked off, more serious than usual, same with Leorio and Kurapika.

"Yo, you don't look as scary anymore Illumi-san." Kagero grinned. "Hope your arm heals properly."

"Mirage we're going to leave you behind!" Leorio yelled.

"Ok!" She yelled back. "Bye Illumi! Bye Hisoka! Oh yea, Hisoka, don't stalk us to creep on Gon please." Then she ran off before she got herself killed.

"What a character." Illumi sighed.

"I agree, quite a cute one too." Hisoka teased.

"I am not cute!" She glared at Hisoka sticking her tongue out at him.

"Oh, she heard me~"

"Of course I did!" Then she pouted and ran faster to catch up with the others.

Kagero caught up to the others that were on the other side of the courtyard's patio. Then she snapped her head to where Hisoka and Illumi were because of murderous aura and narrowed her eyes. _Why am I so sensitive to things now?_

Suddenly a sensation came to Kagero. "Be right back!" She hadn't gone to the washroom since the previous night and man it felt like her bladder was going to explode. Kagero finished and walked back to where they were and saw Hanzo talking to them.

"Hey, Hanzo." Kagero walked up to them hands behind her head.

"Oh, Mirage, Hanzo just gave us his, business cards? Yea, business cards." Leorio replied first.

"So you're calling me Mirage now too?"

"Ah, yeah."

 _It seems that he didn't notice himself calling me that._

"One for you too, if you ever come by my Country call me, I'll so how you around the best tourist spots!" Hanzo offered.

"Japan right?"

"How'd you know?"

"I'm from Japan too." _Albeit not from this world._

Hanzo looked a bit surprised. She didn't look as if she were from there, his home country.

"Well, I have to go. See ya!" He walked off.

"Bye!" Gon waved.

Then came Pokkle who apologized for his actions towards Kurapika.

While the four were talking Kagero propped herself against a tree and relaxed. Then Kurapika and Leorio went to the lobby.

Kagero listened in on Satotz and Gon's conversation not noticing that her presence had been hidden unconsciously. When they finished and started to get up Kagero got out from the shadows.

"Hey, Kurapika and Leorio are waiting."

"UWA!" Gon yelled. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Eh, sorry..." She sheepishly rubbed her neck.

"Bye Satotz-san! Thanks for everything!" Gon ran off.

"Hope we meet again." Kagero smiled and ran off to catch up with Gon.

Kurapika had ordered the tickets and they were waiting in a car in a traffic jam when Gon came up with the idea to run.

"Oh, good idea, we should race!" Kagero got a head start running.

" _Oi_! No fair!" Leorio started running.

"Mirage, wait up!" Gon bolted after her. Even with his arm in a sling he could run just fine.

Arriving on the aircraft Kagero immediately fell asleep.

The next few days on the aircraft were uneventful as Kagero spent most of her time relaxing or sleeping, the occasional nightmare waking her up. Then came the train ride, which was almost exactly the same.

Kagero stuck her head out of the train window. Suddenly she couldn't breathe properly because of the wind pressure, but got her circulation under control and started breathing normally again. Her hair started flying about, but it felt nice. That's when her ponytail came undone.

"WHAT!" She exclaimed startling the others.

"OUCH!" Leorio jumped from the sudden shout, hitting his head on the rack above his head. "Woah, what happened?" Leorio asked with wide eyes, rubbing the newly forming numb on his head.

"My only hair tie came out..." She sulked.

"You can get some more in town." Kurapika suggested.

"Oh, I guess I can do that." Then her stomach growled. "..." She looked around the room if the train, trying to keep the attention off of her, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Ne, what was that noise?" There it was again. The three looked to Kagero to see her blushing furiously, looking down into her lap, embarrassed.

"Haha, I-I guess, I'm hungry?" She rubbed her neck, nervously.

Leorio burst out laughing. "We of course you are! You _have_ been sleeping the whole time!" Kurapika was chuckling and Gon was outright laughing with them.

"...Bullies, you guys are _bullies_ I tell you!...Laughing at my hunger..." If possible, they laughed even harder.

"But you know..." Gon started, after he was done laughing, "You really have changed since the start of the exam."

"Really?"

"Yea, you're more...more... _outgoing_!" Gon finally found the word on the tip of his tongue.

"She used to be this 'cool' character." Leorio used the infamous 'air quotes'.

"Hey! Aren't I _still_ cool?" She pouted slightly.

"At times I guess."

"What does that mean? Sheesh." She huffed and looked out the window.

Her stomach growled again. She blushed and huffed a breath of air in frustration, a scowl on her features, "...I'll go get some food." The others were chuckling as she got up to leave.

Getting up, she went to the front of the train where they had vending machines and such. She got a bag of chips, a granola bar, a chocolate bar and a supplement drink. The snacks were for the boys. Then a little kid bumped into her.

"Hm?" She looked down to her.

"Pretty..." She stared up at Kagero. Kagero blushed slightly. "Miss, why are your eyes like that?"

 _Huh, my eyes?_ She looked at her reflection in the vending machine to see her eyes still changing between the two colors. She thought of something from the top of her head. "Uhh, It's something from my family's bloodline."

"Bloodline?" The little girl tilted her head cutely.

Kagero nodded. "Yes. Now, where's your mother kiddo?"

"She asked me to get her something!" She beamed.

"What did she want?"

"Eto...This!" She pointed to the item and Kagero got it for her.

"Here you go." She smiled kindly, "You can have this too." She handed the girl an extra chocolate bar she got.

"Thanks miss!" She ran off waving with s large smile.

"Now then..." She walked back to her seat with the boys.

"Ah. Welcome back."

"Thanks. Um...Hey, are my eyes still... _flickering_?"

"Un!"

"Hmm...Well obviously it's not normal..." She started thinking aloud. The excuse from earlier came to mind. "Hey...do you think it could be a family trait?"

"It's not entirely impossible." Leorio thought, "Eyes can change colors over time... but not like yours..."

"Hmm..."

It was silent until Kagero saw the mountain. "There it is." She stared out the window.

She zoned out looking at the scenery while the others were talking. Soon they arrived.

"The tour bus takes us there once a day." Kurapika walked to the group that was at a food stand.

"When does it leave?"

"About an hour."

"Do you mind if we meet up at the bus?"

"Good idea."

Kagero walked off to another gym to increase her weights; since after the exam it didn't even feel like she had them on. Kagero also got a change of clothing as she had worn the same thing for days. She had a light blue long sleeve shirt on with her sweater tied around her waist and wore jeans. She also got a hat. Turns out it was a beret. She had also gotten a simple black tank top, leggings and a pair of shorts. She had excess room in her bag after she lost things during the exam. She also bought some hair ties because for some reason she only had one and it broke off on her.

Walking back to the buss she saw the others. "Yo!" She did a mock salute.

"Ah, you were almost late!" Leorio yelled.

"Nice clothes Mirage!"

"Thanks, I needed new ones." Then she remembered something, she rummages through her bag, "AH, oh no! I forgot to get hair ties!" She grimaced at her mistake while they got on the bus. "Oh. Nevermind." She laughed as she found them in a secluded zipped up pocket on the inside of her bag.

On the bus Kagero noticed two suspicious people with a long sword. Brushing them off she continued staring off into space and eventually dozed off, though not before the explanation of the Zoldyck's family tree.

Getting off the bus after being rudely awakened by Leorio she got off in a bad mood. But when she saw the gate she forgot about it.

"Wow, that's quite extravagant." Kagero said yawning.

The tourist lady explained a few things about the land and the gate itself.

"This _whole_ area is their backyard?" Leorio was a bit skeptical.

"I lived on a mountain too. It's not that exciting frankly." Kagero walked off to explore the surroundings. While Kagero wasn't looking the two suspicious men attacked the guard. The guard was lifted up by the collar and was being threatened. He gave in and gave the thugs the key.

Then the guard was thrown aside harshly. Kagero ran up and caught him. Well not fully caught him, did you know how big he was?

"Are you okay?" Both Gon and Kagero said simultaneously.

"Man... Now Mike's going to end up eating between meals again."

"Huh?" Suddenly extremely loud screams were heard and a huge furry arm came out and dropped two skeletons.

"Mike! Don't blame me if you get fat!" The guard yelled.

 _Who's Mike, and why will he get fat?_ Kagero came in before she could grimace at the skeletons.

The tourist lady yelled for them to get in the bus—actually she screamed like a banshee—but Gon politely said that they were staying. The lady fell out of the bus in shock only to run back in and retreat in fear.

After explaining some things to Zebero, Gon and Kurapika did the honours, the sun was starting to set. It was already past the tree line and the orange glow illuminated the sky. Kagero quietly sipped her tea and stared at the skeletons. _Why do they still have the clothes on?_ Yes, that was the only thing she thought when it happened...

"I can't let you inside." Zebero caught Kagero's attention. He explained that he didn't want them killed by Mike and reducing them to skeletons.

Kurapika pointed out the fact the Zebero could go in and out without being harmed. He also brought up the lock on the door.

Suddenly Kagero though that the gate wasn't locked. She got up and walked to the gate and observed it.

Before Zebero could explain that he doesn't need a key Kagero yelled. "Ne, this isn't really locked right?"

Though she wasn't heard and Zebero kept talking to Kurapika.

"Correct. I'm not a guard. I merely clean up after Mike."

"And the actual gate isn't locked!"

"What!" They looked to the gate to see a sitting and grinning Kagero.

Leorio walked out and tried pushing the gate open until his face went beet red. "I've tried pushing and pulling but it won't budge! You sure it isn't locked?!"

"You just aren't strong enough."

"That's absurd! I've been using all my strength!"

Kagero started laughing. "Le-Leorio's j-just that weak... hah..."

"Oi!"

"Just watch" He walked to the gate and explained its purpose. The gate opened and slowly closed behind. "You don't have to worry about Mike. He has orders not to attack any who enter through the Testing Gate."

Kagero walked up to the gate and put her hands on it.

"If I couldn't open it you wouldn't be able to Mirage!" Leorio yelled.

Kagero pushed as hard as she could and gate four opened slightly. She flew backwards from the force, almost landing on Leorio, then glared at the gate.

"Wha, that that's thirty-four tons!" Leorio looked to her, amazed, though she was just glaring at the gate. "Glaring at it won't help you!" He retorted.

She tried again and put less strength into it effectively opening the third gate all the way. The door closed behind her.

While Kagero was on the other side exploring Zebero explained everything else to the boys. Then Gon tried climbing the door.

"Hey...How do I get out?!" Kagero finally realized that she might be stuck inside.

"Same thing as you did to get in!" Gon relayed Zebero's information to her.

After opening the gate again she was out. "Ah, that scared me. I thought I would be trapped in there."

"Let's go in then."

"What! I just did that twice and we have to go in again?!" She sighed. "It's tiring..." But she opened it again anyways.

Zebero called for Mike, you could hear growling and loud noises coming from the direction it was coming in. Kagero wasn't scared until she saw the animal.

Zebero was the only person unfazed. Well obviously, he sees Mike all the time.

"Gon-kun, do you understand now? This is a trained hunting dog. It's nothing like the wild animals you're accustomed to." While Zebero lectured Gon, Kagero and Mike had a stare down.

"His eyes are emotionless... How cruel." She put her hand up to him slowly. He didn't react. She slowly got closer.

"M-Mirage, what are you _doing_! It'll _attack_ you." Leorio stepped back from the beast.

"It's a _he._ Leorio." She glared at him. "Not an _it_." Kagero shot back. "He won't attack unless I threaten him, plus we came in through the gate. It's his orders correct?" Zebero nodded. He noticed the sad tone to her voice, she felt bad for Mike.

 _Her character is very unique_.

She continued getting closer until she was in reach of his nose. Slowly raising her hand she put it on his snout. She gradually relaxed when she noticed Mike was done analyzing her. "I wouldn't want to fight him. He's just like Killua... sort of" She trailed off into her thoughts.

"I don't want to fight him either." Gon was sweating and shook his head profoundly.

"Well, how long will you be here?"

"Until we meet Killua!" Gon immediately recovered from his fear. "We won't leave before then!"

"Well then, come this way." He chuckled.

After a light walk through Killua's backyard they arrived at the house Zebero stayed in.

"Here are the servant's quarters. It's getting late, so you can stay here tonight."

Zebero opened the door. Kagero noticed that the sound from the door was not normal and saw the scratch marks on the floor as she walked through.

 _Looks like Kurapika noticed it too._ She nudged his arm and glanced to the door. He nodded.

"Please come in." Zebero yelled to what was assumed to be another servant of the Zoldyck household. "Hey, I'm back!"

"Oh, you rarely bring guests." The shaggy guy walked down the stairs with a lit cigarette.

"This is Seaquant. He works with me here."

"Good evening." Gon cheerfully greeted. Kagero nodded and smiled.

"Heh, if you managed to win over Zebero, you must be special. Well, make yourselves at home. Though it won't be easy here."

"Thanks, and I've already noticed!" Kagero broke the atmosphere with a cheerful voice. The three stared at her. "...What?"

Zebero led everyone to the table and started serving tea.

"You want to see young Killua?" Sequent laughed. "That's a riot!"

Meanwhile Zebero finished serving the tea and the kettle made a somewhat loud noise when put down. Kagero glanced at Zebero and whispered. "That's really heavy isn't it? Same with the door and your cup." Zebero just put a hand behind his head and brushed the question off.

"Sorry, but we're dead serious." Gon said with a blank face, showing how serious he was.

"Then let me give you a hint. Give up, and go home." Seaquant said bluntly.

"What was that?!" Leorio was getting ready to retaliate.

"Zebero told you about the Testing Gate, right? That should give you an Idea of what this place is like."

"Clearly." She glanced with a raised eyebrow and vaguely pointed to the Zebero's tea cup the tea pot and the doors.

"We understand that it won't be easy. But I'm not leaving. Not until I see Killua!"

" _We_ Gon, _we._ " Kagero corrected. Gon laughed slightly.

Gon started explaining his purpose being there and his guilt about not being able to help Killua.

"Gon, I could have stopped him. But I didn't."

"That's not your fault Mirage. Killua is _our_ close friend!" Kagero nodded approving Gon's use of 'our'.

"We understand."

"Why not train here?" Kagero said.

"Eh?" Leorio and Gon both said, though Leorio was more confused about it.

"Everything here must weigh considerably heavy. That's what you use to keep in shape to open the Testing Gate, correct?"

"Yes," Zebero answered Kagero's question. "Listen to me, you three are allowed to work together to open the door."

"Three? What about Mirage?"

"I can already open it. It's just you guys that have to. Eh heh." She rubbed her head. "With training, it should be possible. Even for you Leorio." Kagero just wanted to tease him.

"How about it?"

"Wait, that little _girl_ can open the gate?" Seaquant scoffed. " _Impossible._ "

The three immediately knew where this was going.

"Hmm...So, you tell me just because I'm a _girl_ I can't open it?" Kagero said standing up and glared at him, threatening him to say anything more. She cracked her knuckles. She didn't notice that she was using some aura at the moment. He was terrified. Actually, everyone in the room was.

"Now now, Mirage, calm down." Leorio tried to calm the agitated girl and was failing at it.

"Oh I'm _totally_ calm." The others sweatdropped. _Denial_ they sung in their minds.

"Mirage, you're stronger than all of us combined! You don't even _need_ to train!" Gon tried to calm her down. Eventually she sat back down with a frustrated huff and pouted. The three sighed.

"I don't like the idea of being tested..."

"But if there is no other way..."

"We'll just have to do it!"

"Then I'll need you to put these on." Zebero got Seaquant to bring out vests with weights on then. Everyone but Mirage was having trouble so Zebero added more to hers.

"Wha-...Yea, add more on to mine. Of course. _Thanks_." You could _feel_ the sarcasm emanating off of her.

"How is this so heavy..." Leorio fell down to the floor with his vest on. He looked like he was in dogeza.

"It weighs fifty Kilograms. Though I added more to hers so it's a total of one hundred."

"One- ONE HUNDRED!" Leorio's head sharply turned to Kagero who was standing there with just a little struggle. "You...You're not human!"

"Eh?" She tilted her head.

"Don't go all cute on me you monster!"

"Oh, I'm so hurt!" Kagero mocked a gunshot to the heart.

"Anyways, please wear it at all times, except while you sleep." Zebero instructed. Leorio looked relieved at the sleeping part. "I'll make them heavier as you get used to it." This time Leorio paled at the thought of _more_ weight, it seemed as if Zebero was enjoying this.

"Zebero. Do you have any of these for your legs or wrists? Mine feel too light now compared to the vest." She took them off and carefully put them on the floor not wanting them to dent the floor.

"Yes, I shall get them now."

Kagero put them on when he came back. "Hmm, how much do they weigh each?"

"Thirty Kilograms."

"Are there sixty Kilo ones?...Those would be good for my arms... Then how about eighty for my legs?"

"Yes."

"M-monster."

"Shut up Leorio." _I've had weights on all my life..._ she pouted. Zebero got back and she put them on her arms. "These are good. It'll take a while to get used to them. Thanks Zebero-san!"

"Then please have some tea." The trio had trouble walking to the table but Kagero walked over there no problem. Or at least that's what she wanted them to think. She had to try to not break the chair by not sitting down so quickly.

Everyone eyed the cups suspiciously. They tried to pick them up but couldn't.

"Wh-what."

"The cups weigh twenty kilograms. The teapot weighs forty kilograms."

"So all furniture and everything else weigh over twenty kilos, hmm?"

"Correct."

"I see, so this will serve as training." Kurapika said.

"It's useless... They'll give up in two or three days."

"What was that?!" Leorio yelled. But the one that was truly angry was Kagero.

She stood up abruptly and glared at Sequant then she looked to Zebero and smiled, though a bit strained. "If you don't mind I would like to get some sleep."

"The extra rooms are upstairs and the last two doors on either side. Though two of you will have to share a room."

"I should get a room alone. After all I am the opposite gender. Who knows what Leorio might do to me." She thought back to the hunter exam's tower phase where Leorio gave into his um... perverted desires... "But there are only two rooms... So Gon and I will have to share then."

"Ok, Mirage good night." Gon agreed.

"G'night," she yawned while lazily waving back.

Kagero walked up the stairs and got into a free room. Then she heard Leorio yell, "What?! Get out! I can't hold it in!" She laughed at his struggle to what she assumed to be getting into the bathroom.

Couldn't he just go outside? That's what men can do right?

"Now, for some training..." She opened the window and jumped from it and started running. After all, she did just get new weights she wanted to get used to them. She ran for a few hours until she was panting and went back to the room to only find herself passing out on her bed without taking her weights off.

 **(Omake)**

Kagero walked in on Gon and Illumi talking.

"Do they feel the same way?"

"Yup!" Kagero bounded in, smiling, "I'm _totally_ in love with Killua and need your approval to get a proposal together so I can force him into my cat army and take over the world." She laughed evilly, "I just need to get you to sign here." She whipped out a piece of paper. Gon looked scared and Leorio anime fell. She blinked at the stares she was getting, "But seriously, what were you guys talking about?"

Kurapika anime fell along with Leorio.

 **(Omake End)**

 **(Omake 2)**

Zebero opened the door. Kagero glanced around and noticed something unusual.

 _Looks like Kurapika noticed it too._ She nudged his arm. He nodded. _Zebero's fly is undone, and he hasn't noticed as of yet._

 **(Omake 2 End)**


	12. Chapter 12

"Mirage, Mirage!... _Mi-ra-ge_!" Gon shook her shoulder roughly.

"Hm?"

"It's time to get up!"

"Ugh..." Slowly getting up she looked at the clock and saw that it was almost noon. "Uwa, I've never slept in this late in... wait... _never_ actually..." She sighed at her laziness, that's when her stomach growled in a dire need.

"Mmm," she stretched, "Did anyone have anything to eat yet?"

"Nope!"

Yawning, she wiped her eyes. "I'll make something then and I'll be training by my own regimen later too if it's ok."

In the kitchen Kagero found out that the kitchen supplies were just as heavy as the tea pot. She could lift that, but with difficulty with her weights on. She ended whipping out a pan and making basic bacon and eggs with some spices. She made orange juice out of fresh oranges since the fridge had so many of them, and brought the plates to the table on a tray.

"You can cook?" Leorio asked.

"Yea, how do you think I passed the second phase?" Her voice was dipped in sarcasm, "Oh yeah, Zebero-san, I also made some for you and Seaquant."

"Oh thank you."

"Wait, you made some for _Seaquant_?" Leorio was surprised. He ignored her sarcasm.

"Yea... so?"

Leorio sighed. "You're too forgiving."

"Hmm, really? Well we're going to prove Sequant wrong anyways." She smirked and looked to him. Sequant huffed and looked away.

"But isn't being able to forgive a good quality?" Gon asked.

"It is, but..." Leorio started.

But Kagero interrupted before Kurapika could. "We should finish up, I want to train."

"My stomach has a dire need!" Kagero stabbed her fork into her bacon. "Mmmm, bacon."

Gon and leorio nodded and dug in.

After breakfast everyone went out to train. Kagero did her thing and the boys did strength training while Gon sat out.

Then lunch came around and everyone ate. Zebero made some basic sandwiches. The boys took a break but Kagero went out to do some sprint jogging to do aerobic and anaerobic exercises. She would jog then sprint then jog again, then she would stop, do push ups, do tree jumping exercises rinse and repeat. She was also munching on her sandwiches at the same time.

"... Train-a-holic..." Leorio muttered.

Kagero was passing by and tripped him as she got up from her push ups.

"Che, do hear _everything_!?"

"Oh but I do, Leorio, _I do_." She said the last by with a creepy grin in a deep voice.  
She laughed as she started running again. After a while she decided to train with the others. Running to where they were, she saw them doing basic weight lifting with the chairs and everything around the house. That will be such a hassle to put everything back.

"Did you guys even think this through?" They all gave her blank stares, not knowing what she was getting at. "You will have to bring all this stuff back inside when you're done, dead tired and too weak to do anything."

During the training session Kagero brought something up.

"Hmm... Do you think I could travel higher into the mountain to train?"

"What!" Leorio yelled out dropping the chairs that were balanced on his arms.

"I mean, the air would be thinner and it would prove more useful for me since I can open the gate."

"I want to go too!"

"Sorry Gon, but I should go alone." She patted his head. "I'm used to living in the mountains anyways."

"But!" Leorio interrupted.

"No. I'm going alone."

"I agree with Leorio on this one Mirage." Kurapika came in. "We're already trespassing on the Zoldycks property, and if you get caught..."

"I already know that! That's the part of the reason why I want to go!" She huffed. "I would be alert at all times which would be beneficial. Also... I want to train the way I used to and I can't do it down here. Otherwise I won't improve!" Kagero ranted a bit and it went quiet.

"What if...What if I ask Zebero and he says it's alright?..." She broke the uncomfortable silence she had created. "Would you guys approve of it then?"

"Un!" Gon came in with no hesitation.

Kurapika sighed. "I would have to approve."

"Suits me." Leorio actually agreed.

Then Kagero went back to training and ended up doing her tree jumping exercise the majority of the time.

"Mirage~ What training are you doing?" Gon chirped. "I've never heard of it."

"Hn? Oh, I'm increasing my jumping height and strength in my legs. While doing that I try to land without a sound to distribute weight properly. You see, if I landed normally it would be bad on the joints and would create this huge crater in the ground and-" By this time Gon's ears were steaming.

"Ah, I guess it would be better to show you..."

She jumped as high as she could and surpassed the trees height. Then grabbed a branch as she was falling and spun on it to reduce the force and did some chin ups. Jumping down she landed without distributing the weight properly and a huge bang was heard and a cloud of dust formed.

"See? Just like Netero-san did from the airship. Good for a flashy entrance, but that's bad, very bad. You can destroy your knees doing that."

"I see. So you made this training up?" Kurapika asked

"Yup, I did live in the mountains after all. I made up some ways to train."

"Like what?" Kurapika was intrigued.

During their training time Kurapika and Kagero were talking about training methods and the ones she made up such as the reflex fishing training, the tree hoping and the spinning around on her front wheel of her rollerblades. Then Leorio brought up some pointless topics and other stupid ideas. It was all fun and games until Leorio dropped a chair on his foot. Well maybe that's exaggerated. Then Leorio tried to sneak up on Kagero and got the tables turned on him—literally. He was going to pick up a table when Kagero came in and table flipped it over his head. He swore for revenge.

After that it was time for dinner. Kagero cooked again because Gon requested it. Apparently her cooking reminds him of his Aunt and Grandma. The boys brought the furniture in while she cooked. They regretted not brining in the furniture in earlier when they weren't as tired. Leorio was mumbling incoherent strings of profanity that hopefully couldn't be heard by Gons pure, virgin ears. Oblivious to the men's groans of pain, she continued to cook the meal that consisted of some chicken with peppers and greens with sauce and a side of rice.

Bringing the food out, the brought all of it out at once even though it was insanely heavy. She was the type to carry everything at once, or die trying.

"Uwa, it looks good Mirage!"

"Thanks." She smiled.

"You know...Mirage actually seems like a girl now with all the cooking that she's been doing." Leorio voiced out.

Kagero smacked him upside the head with the tray she brought the food out with.

"What was that for?!" He rubbed the bump that was starting to form.

"Nothing...You just irritated me." The others laughed.

While they ate she brought up her idea of going to train further up the mountain.

"Zebero, would I be able to go train up in the mountain?"

"Why's that?"

"It would be better for me to do my own training since I can open the gate already; and I think that the thin air would be a better environment to do it in."

"Hm, as long as you be careful you should be fine."

"Thank's Zebero."

After they finished eating Kagero took a nice hot bath and went to bed. The next morning she got up and made breakfast, again, and by the time she was done everyone was up.

"Mornin." Leorio yawned.

"Morning, breakfast is on the table. I'll get Gon up."

"He's still asleep? I thought he would be an early riser."

"Oh he is." _He just did some secret training last night. No big deal. But I'll keep that unknown to you._

"Gon." She shook his shoulder. "Gon... Ah, no use." She picked him up and waltzed out of the room.

"Wha-" Leorio and the others were surprised to see Kagero carry Gon down to the table while he was sleeping. _Remind me to not get Mirage to wake me up._

She placed him at his seat at the table. He promptly woke up.

"Smells good!"

"Heh. I guess that woke him up, must be hungry." Kagero laughed. "Well he _does_ have a dog's sense of smell."

"Un!"

After breakfast she went to her room and put on her mother's sweater and her black shorts. Her weighted vest was under her sweater, same with her wrist weights. Packing everything that was necessary in her pouches and bag, she walked down the stairs and to the main room, then Leorio noticed something.

"Wait...you're not going right _now_... Are you?"

"Wow, your being unusually sharp this morning." Kagero taunted.

"What!...Wait so you're going ?!"

"Mmhmm, why not? We're not staying here for forever so I have to get started now. Were only staying for, what? A month?"

"When will you be back?" Kurapika asked nonchalantly.

"Hmm.. about a month." That got a deadpan from Leorio. That was the time they were staying for. "That's around the time when you guys would try the gate again right? I might come back early or right on the dot. I might also come back occasionally to refill on nutrition bars." She paused for a moment and thought of something. "Zebero, would I be able to increase my weights again?"

"To what?"

"Legs to 100kg and arms to 100kg, and my vest to 700kg."

"That's insane!"

"I know," She agreed, "but this will help since I won't be coming back a lot, then I will not have to add more. Unless I have gotten used to this weight in two to three weeks I'll come back and increase it."

Zebero came back with the newly weighted weights, but he actually put 800 kilos for the vest. She put them on.

"Hmm...Isn't the vest heavier than I asked?"

"Yes."

"To what?"

"800kg, I think you can handle it."

"I guess so..."

"Once again... _Insane_!" He threw his hands up in exasperation.

" _Leorio_ ," She said in a threatening tone. He was getting annoying. "I would advise you to be quiet." She said with a sweet smile that didn't suit the dark voice she used. The fact that she was cracking her knuckles didn't help.

"..."

"Oh, so you're going to come back twice as strong!" Gon came in, pulling her attention to him.

"Yes! Only Gon understands me!" She ran and glomped him. She forgot that she had all that weight on and almost crushed Gon, she halted halfway and lessened the force, Gon had the wind knocked out of him. "... Hehehe sorry... But I always wanted to say that and glomp someone... Anyways, bye!" She ran off into the woods and up the mountain.

"Bye! See you soon Mirage!" Gon yelled after recovering and waved.

Leorio sighed and scratched his head. "What are we going to do with her?"

"What's that supposed to mean!" She yelled.

"Ah. She heard me."

"Of course I did!" _Wait...isn't that like...Dejavu?_

On her journey through the mountain she didn't go down the path that would lead them to the house, she would get caught like that. She went around to the secluded part of the mountain with more trees. She did her jog and sprinting exercises until she thought she was high enough that the air was more difficult to deal with. By that time it was sun down. She made a camp like the one she made during the hunter exam and went to sleep.

She did her usual training methods for a week when she thought of a new training method.

"Aha! I'm a mad genius!" She thought aloud, though she debated on whether she should laugh evilly or not. If she got caught while doing so... well they would immediately attack her. Plus she couldn't just laugh like an evil maniac—that would be way too loud. And _then_ she would get caught, possibly tortured, and killed. Either way it was bad for her.

The next morning she set up a training sight with logs tied and hanging from tree branches. She set them up in the trees so that she could pull on a rope that would make them all fall and start swinging. She would have to dodge these swinging logs. It would also be a good trap.

She did that all morning and frankly it was tough. With the weights on that were much heavier than she was used to her movements slowed down considerably. She got hit a few times and now had bruises across her back, arms and legs. The thinner air didn't help much either with her stamina.

 _Ugh, I'll have to cool these. Don't want them to swell and restrict my movement._

After following her nose she found a decent sized pond nearby. She took off her sweater and wet the sleeves. Dabbing the cold, wet cloth on her bruises she sensed something nearby.

 _It's not an animal..._ She glanced to the area where it came from.

She started doing her version of Rhythm Echo. Even though it wasn't really that. Killua taught her how to make the double with the rhythm, but not with the intensity that the normal technique did. Instead of doing it in a circle the movements were random for each shadow.

 _Hmm not bad, she knows I'm here. And she knows rhythm echo. Though...it's different…_ He came out of his hiding spot. He was an old man, white hair standing on end, short of stature and weird banner on saying '1 kill per day'. She researched on Killua's family background when she head he was an assassin.

 _So he must be Zeno._

"Little girl, you are trespassing on our private property, state your business."

"Oh!" She halted to a stop, almost flying forward from the sudden loss of movement. "I'm Killua's friend." She said cheerfully, _better not act suspicious..._

"Killua's friend?"

"Mmhmm," she nodded, "Yes, we took the hunter exam together, and we want to take him back you see. But the others can't open the gate to come in, so I'm training by myself."

 _So she can open the gate._ "What gate number did you open too?"

"I almost opened gate four, but I got through three, so I'm going to open five by the end of the next two months."

 _Like Killua she could open it, impressive. He opened gate three, but not five... is she older than him? She looks like she's at least twelve._

"So... you're his grandfather, Zeno, correct?" He gave her a murderous look. "Ugh, I'm not a threat, no need to murder me, and you only kill for profit correct? Also the only reason I know you're Zeno is because I did research and only got your names and narrowed it down."

 _She answered almost all of my questions…_ "How do you know Rhythm Echo?"

"Well, Killua gave me a hint and taught me a bit. Though he was too _stubborn_ to teach me the full thing."

 _Hint?_

"Yes, a hint. He said to move with no sound in a rhythm! Vague hint, I know. I couldn't even get it until he taught me the rhythm sometime after." _In the room we were stuck in the tower for how long..._

Awkward silence ensued.

"Oh, do you think you could spar with me?" _I know this is a stupid question. Sparring with an assassin that could kill me at any moment._ "Please? I haven't sparred with anyone in...I can't remember how long!" _Actually I can, it was with Hanzo, but that's beside the point._

 _Interesting girl._ "It's possible." Then he disappeared.

"What...He just, vanished, typical of an assassin." She raised an eyebrow... then realized what he did, "Wait...YOU! Don't get my hopes up and just... Just _LEAVE_! MEAN OLD MAN!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

On the other side of the mountain Zeno clearly heard what she said and had an amused smirk on. Gon and the others probably heard her too.

Kagero was pissed off now and decided she couldn't train in the state of mind that she was in. So, she decided to meditate.

Meanwhile, on the bottom of the mountain.

"Was...was that Mirage's scream?"

"Un. She said 'You. Don't get my hopes up and just... Just leave. Mean old man.'" Gon relayed almost in a monotonous voice.

"You don't have to translate it word for word, Gon." Leorio deadpanned.

"But that's what she yelled."

"Oh, she must have met Zeno-sama." Zebero said when he came in to check on the boys.

"Zeno-sama?" Gon questioned.

"Killua-sama's grandfather. He might have let her train in piece." _Ehhem...Hopefully._

"Knowing Mirage," Kurapika came in, "She must have noticed his presence and struck a conversation with him."

"That does sound like Mirage..." They said in unison.

In the middle of her meditation she sneezed abruptly.

"Dam, they heard me and are now talking about me, huh." She said skeptically.

Back at the Zoldyck mansion Zeno told Silva the contents of his mission and remembered to report about the girl.

"I met an interesting girl on the mountain. She said she was Killu's friend."

"A friend?" Silva raised an eyebrow. It was a question but he didn't state it as one.

"She opened the gate, wasn't intimidated by me, and she asked me to spar with her." Zeno thought she was interesting.

Silva scoffed.

Back with Kagero she sneezed abruptly. "Damn, everyone must be talking about me!" She scowled.

A few days later she sensed the old man again while doing her log exercise. She had a feeling that he let her sense him this time.

"What do you want?"

"I'm here to take you up on your offer."

"Really?!" Her face beamed. She jumped out of the way of a log and landed in front of him.

"No."

"Whaaaat...Well, I should have expected that, coming from a master assassin after all." She pouted. Then a log came flying at her hitting her in the side, sending her into a tree. " _Oof_." she grunted when hit suddenly. Zeno grimaced internally as she almost went head first into the trunk. Kagero's eyes widened, she didn't really want a concussion. She tipped the ground with her foot helping her front flip before head butting the bark.

"Ugh, that was unexpected..." She got up rubbing her side, ' _Ouch, that's gonna bruise_.' She got back on topic, "Then, why are you here?"

Just before he spoke she said what he was going to say. "To keep tabs on me hm?" She turned around and went back to her logs, "I'm not up to no good. You can come _every_ day and I won't leave this general area. Until, the end of the two months anyways. "

She pushed the logs really hard and they started swinging wildly. She closed her eyes and continued training, ignoring Zeno.

Three hours later she was sweating profoundly. She took of her sweater to reveal her vest and bandages. Her wrist weights were noticeable now and her ankle weights were already in sight.

Zeno was still there surprisingly. Silva told him to keep the girl under a strict watch. Though he was curious to how much her weights were.

Then she took off to the trees and hopped on to trunks without touching the ground. Another form of training she recently made up in the Hunter Exam.

 _Good training for combat in this type of terrain, also works muscles and balance to a very high degree._

After that she found an open spot that was relatively flat and cleared it of debris, then she switched her shoes to rollerblades. Just like what she did in the hunter exams fourth phase. She spun wildly on her rollerblades constantly shifting her center of gravity.

 _Did she make these training methods up?_ Zeno thought.

"AH!" She had one of those eureka moments and suddenly stopped spinning in her tracks, almost falling over from the sudden loss of momentum. Her sudden exclamation startled Zeno since she had been so quiet.

She thought that changing her center of gravity in a long jump with a flip or something in a certain way would be able to increase her jump length considerably. She changed her rollerblades back to shoes and she ran to the furthest part of the clearing. She ran as fast as she could and jumped as far as she could and marked it off with a few sticks and the place where she launched herself from.

She did it again but in the middle of her jump where she _would_ have started descending she tucked her legs in and shifted her center of gravity further down to the waist. She flipped out of the tuck she did and landed about twenty feet further than her normal jump.

"Uwa, can't believe I've thought of this."

She was about to get back to training when...

Her stomach growled.

"Um, hey...Zeno-san."

"..."

She sighed. "I'll take it that your listening. Is there a stream or river nearby? A fast one at that?"

"In fact there is, you will have to find it yourself though." He didn't plan to help her in any way. Though he smirked, what she would find... would be surprising.

"Hn, I see. Thanks." She plopped down and meditated to focus on her surroundings. She smelt the moisture of the water coming from the east, she also heard water flowing.

She got up and started running towards the stream.

"... This isn't a mere river or stream..." She looked over to Zeno who followed her skeptically, "Who the _hell_ has _rapids_ in their _backyard_!?" She sighed. "You guys _do_ defy anything normal in all aspects, and I do indeed mean _all_."

She took her shoes off and walked to the part of the rapid that wasn't as ferocious as the other spots.

"Ah, I wouldn't want to get these wet..." She took off her anklets from the large rock that she was on and tossed them to the side of the rapids they made a fairly large crater. Then her wrist weights, same thing as her ankle weights. And finally her vest, which made the largest cavity of them all. She stretched, feeling the relief from the loss of weight and jumped into the middle of the calmest part in the... rapids.

She fished for, well, any kind of fish really. And while she was doing that Zeno took the chance to check her weights.

 _Ankle and wrist weights both weigh 100 kilo's each, and the vest weighs 800. So 1200 in total. Not bad._

She caught a whole bunch of fish. Zeno probably thought she was a fatty. She brought them back to her camp and gutted the fish with her hidden blade on her right arm guard.

 _She's well prepared._

After the fish were done cooking she dug in, but stopped mid-bite.

"What are you doing? You should eat too. Why do you think I got so much fish for? I'm not _that_ much of a fatty."

Zeno mentally laughed, slightly.

"Oh come on, I cooked it right in front of you. It wouldn't be poisoned, and you're _immune_ to poisons, _and_ I know you have been trained to not eat for days on end, but..."

Zeno sighed and he took a fish. She beamed.

"So, you gonna' report this to the boss?"

His facial expression didn't change but she soon thought he was confused by her statement.

"And by ' _boss_ ' I mean Killua's father, Kikiyo's husband, your _son_."

He didn't say anything and just remained stoic...

She thought that she should break his emotionless face and get him to laugh or at least smile.

"Say, you didn't kill anyone today right?"

He stayed silent.

"... I'll take that as a yes. Anyways, and your banner thing says 'one kill per day'."

"..."

"So does that mean you're going to kill me?"

He decided to play along. "Yes."

" _What_! No! You're kidding right? You have to be kidding." She acted along sensing that it was sarcasm, then she glanced to Zeno, he still had the blank slate on his face, "Bu- But I have... I HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR! I can't die yet! I-I _can't_! Please...j-just let me say something, just _one_ more thing, it's all I need..." She stood up looking terrified and backed away slowly.

He was surprised that she took it so seriously.

"You... My _friend_..." She took a deep shaky breath in to emphasize fear and sadness. "HAVE BEEN _FOOLED_!" She started laughing at his stoic face. She was laughing so hard she was clutching her stomach.

Zeno sweat dropped and looked away like 'I can't believe I have been fooled.' Though that would be exaggerated.

"Ahh, I got you good. Your face, it just screamed, ' _I have been fooled, nonetheless by a little girl!_ ' Well not exactly as emphasized and I did but..."

' _What have I gotten myself into...'_ Zeno thought, though there was a slight upturn of his lips.

"Aha, success! You smiled!" She cheered and did a little victory dance.

After a while the fire had started to burn out.

"I was thinking..." Kagero brought up randomly a few minutes later. "Why did you let your son name Killua, _Killua_. Who would let someone name their son with the word _kill_ in it."

Zeno's face slipped.

"Heh, I got you to smile again. But seriously...Why ' _Kill_ ua'? If he was on an assassination mission and he had to infiltrate some place or get close to someone and he said his name he would scare the other person off!" She raised her voice during her argument.

Time passed and it was getting dark. "Ah, it's getting late, good night Zeno-san."

Kagero went inside her little campsite and curled up in the comfiest patch of dirt there was. _'Zeno really is a good person; he just makes his living in this manner... Still can't approve of it though...'_ And she fell asleep.

Back at the Zoldyck manor.

"She is not doing anything out of the ordinary. She is... intriguing to say the least." Zeno explained the events to Silva. "Do you want me to test her skills?"

"Yes."

 **(Omake)**

"Ah, I wouldn't want to get these wet..." She took off her weights from the large rock that she was on and tossed them to the side of the rapids they made a fairly large crater. She stretched, feeling the relief from the loss of weight.

Then she thought of something, she smirked wondering if Zeno would know the reference.

"I'm... too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt. So sexy it hurts." She did a little dance and tossed her shirt across the rapids.

Zeno started coughing.

Obviously she had her bandages on underneath.

 **(Omake End)**

 **(Omake #2)**

"The child is not doing anything out of the ordinary. The kid is... intriguing to say the least." Zeno explained the events to Silva. "Do you want me to test the child's skills?"

"Yes."

The next morning Zeno approached Kagero's camp. She was already outside training.

They stared each other down, cowboy showdown music echoing in the background.

"Zeno, time to show me your moves. Ready... And... Go!" She pressed a button on a remote and music came on and they broke out in dance.

A dance _battle_ that is.

 **(Omake #2 End)**

 **Hey-o, another chappie here. I'm uploading this now unedited because I'm leaving on vacation for a week. And I can't bring my laptop with me so I won't be able to edit it. I figured uploading now is better than waiting a week, right?**

 **I hope to see some reviews! I'll still be able to check after all! Though I won't be able to reply until I get back…**


	13. Chapter 13

**Yo, there's an important AN at the bottom of the chapter. Please check it out after reading! Thanks~**

• • • • • •

Kagero was up just as the sun was spilling over the horizon. Her internal clock had started working after the hunter exam, but if she overworked herself she would be impossible to wake up, and if she was woken up she would be incredibly drowsy. Not very good when there was an assassin around.

She took the chance of Zeno not coming early to wash her clothing. Yawning she got out of her little base and walked to the rapids nearby. She striped to her boxers, yes she wore boxers, and she was just left with her bandages that covered her body.

"Damn it, Zeno. Give a girl some privacy will ya?" Zeno came out of the bushes. Kagero sighed and continued to wash her clothing. After that, she hung them up to dry on some tree branches and went back to her training ground after catching some fish.

"Why do you wear men's underwear?" Zeno asked dryly.

She paused in biting her fish and swallowed, picking out some bones. "Oh, that's like, the first time you talked in a week." She teased. "And I was raised as a boy, so…This is normal for me."

"Then what about _that_."

"That? Oh, women problems. I no longer have the super power to bleed for a week and not die." She laughed at her own joke. "I had surgery two years ago, when I was twelve. Father encouraged me to get it so it won't…. _Interfere_."

Zeno's facial expression changed to a somewhat disgusted one, though it was very hard to notice.

"I don't plan on having kids anyways, though it's still possible. At least that's what the doc said, something about lessoning the symptoms of menstruation. Oh that reminds me… I need to get more medication soon…"

Zeno went back to his ever ignoring self as Kagero started talking to herself.

"Aww don't be that way, you're gonna get wrink—uh, sorry. Haha, well… I ought to start training now." She carefully skirted around _that_ topic, she didn't know what would set Zeno off—old people didn't really like when their age comes up. "What to do…What to do… Ah!"

She decided to do some training she hadn't done in a while. _Dad would throw me off that cliff if I forgot about the basics. A little late to remember that, but nothing I can do about it now except train._

She took forms from various martial arts and made with the help of her father. But she was getting lazy on it. She had been focusing too much on the acrobatic part of her martial arts. But it requires knowing her forms to the point that she does them on reflex, because in close combat with a shorter range—especially since it used a lot of elbows and knees—she needed to be able to flow without pause. She absently remembered her father calling them katas. She preferred shadow boxing though.

Zeno was still watching her _. I've never seen this martial art. Where did she learn it?_ He saw her do a bicycle kick and follow up with an elbow, and after that she extended her arm to grab at—from what he could see—someone's clothing to flip them over her back with a kick.

Almost sensing that Zeno wanted to ask her something—she could feel his gaze on her from the hair raising on the back of her neck—she took a chance, but didn't stop moving. "What is it?"

"What form of martial arts is that?" It didn't really sound like a question the way he put it. _Pfft,_ _Zoldycks don't_ ask _questions, that's why—they_ demand _the answers._

"Oh, I made it up with some family help. Mixed a few other styles and put my own twist on it. There's nothing else like it in the world I'd say."

Lunch came around and Zeno _wasn't_. The company was nice, but surely Zeno had his own things to do. _People to see, people to kill._ The rest of her day was spent practicing her forms and she mixed her schedule around throughout the week. For a few hours each day—with breaks of course—she beat on a tree, and by the end of that week the tree had no bark left on the base of it and was left fairly smooth.

• • • • • •

Zeno was a man of honor, he was a proud man. People would assume that he was arrogant and unfriendly—which was partially true, he just didn't like conversing, that didn't mean he didn't like company—because of his power. He was a highly ranked assassin after all.

But that didn't mean he was a terrible person—actually, yeah it did—because while he didn't necessarily enjoy killing, he enjoyed the fights that came with it. So when his son gave him the order he was excited, more curious, but looking forward to it nonetheless.

So there he was in a tree watching Kagero training in her unorthodox ways. That weird spinning thing she did with those wheel-shoes of hers. He calculated her spin trajectory and—

She fell under the punch that would have hit her head—aiming for harm, not a kill. But she didn't need to know that. And with the devils luck she made a mistake and slipped, just falling and rolling away from Zeno's outstretched arm of harm.

When she fully realized what was happening she cartwheeled back and took a stance—one that Zeno had just been getting familiar with. "What are you doing old man!?" She shouted, but things started clicking together in her head just as quickly as it came out. "Has Silva told you to kill me?"

He didn't answer, opting for combat instead. After all, actions spoke louder than words—which at the moment made Kagero's assumption seem accurate.

"Damn it!" She took off to the trees as fast as she could to get into her ideal terrain.

Zeno waited for her to get away to give her a false sense of safety and took after her. He found her instantly.

Kagero twisted around a tree, narrowly dodging another punch. If she didn't feel the air current he made she would have been hurt. _Che. He can hide his presence insanely well. I actually gave him an advantage coming out here!_ "Damn it!" She yelled revealing her location on purpose to lure him—even though she doubted that she was actually hidden. Right after she yelled she went back to the clearing at top speed to only have him right on her tail.

Right after she landed, she back flipped over Zeno and kicked his shoulder, jumping off his back to the middle of the clearing.

"If you're supposed to kill me then why are you holding back?" Then it came to her. He wasn't trying to _kill_ her. He was _testing_ her! She smirked. "Bring it on!"

The rest of the day was sparring, she even brought out her arm blades for an edge. Zeno didn't give her a break and they fought till the sun went down.

Kagero was out of breath and was panting heavily. Meanwhile Zeno wasn't even winded. "You Zoldycks are… _insane_." After a minute or two, Kagero recovered from her fatigue. "So, I guess you did take me up on that offer." She huffed and looked to the side with a frown. "Even though, it did take a _month,_ to encourage you to."

 _Impressive recovery time._ Zeno assessed, adding it to the list of things to report.

"So, are we going to continue this tomorrow or something else?"

"We are going to continue."

"It'll be great to rack up some fighting experience. I haven't really sparred a lot… Just training, training, and oh! _More_ training!"

 _She would improve drastically if she had the experience._ Zeno mused and chose todisappear after Kagero caught her fish.

"Aww, he could have had some fish with me." She pouted hoping to toy with him again. Though he might have not fallen for it a second time… Scratch that. It would be impossible to fool a Zoldyck with the same thing twice.

After eating she went to bed and the next day was relatively the same. Zeno would appear while she was training and attack her randomly requiring her guard to be up at all times. This meant that she would have to focus on the training _and_ her surroundings as she kept Zeno in the corner of her eye.

The same pattern went on for the rest of the month—a week since it started mid-month. Zeno was surprised that she was able to keep up with his constant surprise attacks. Whether it be when she was sleeping, catching food or eating, she put up with Zeno's antics.

"It was nice training with you Zeno, but today we're going to take Killua back." She sighed at his quietness. "You don't have to be so anti-social… You're worse than Illumi. I thought I got you to open up some but…"

Zeno sweat dropped. _I'm not as bad as Illumi…Am I?_

"You are probably going to follow us around anyways so I'll say bye properly later." She walked off waving. "And also… You are as bad as Illumi. Start saying your answers, not just with those tiny facial cues of yours." Then she ran off before she got herself killed. She also left a little present for him. She carved out " _Kagero was here! Miss ya Zeno! Also, work on not being like Illumi…please. I'll help with any sanity issues._ " on the poor tree that she has beaten smooth. Zeno would fr _eak out_.

Well unamused was more likely.

She arrived at the cabin while the others were training. Kagero knew this because she snuck around to see what they were doing. While infiltrating the cabin she saw Sequant, or rather he saw her. Kagero shut his mouth with a glare before he could even move, let alone say anything. He was _about_ to comment on how dirty she looked, but wisely kept quiet.

Then she proceeded to the bathroom to have a well needed bath.

 _Well my hair has gotten longer…I should cut it soon, but father forbid me._ She sighed looking at her bangs. They were well passed her eyes now. _I'm supposed to be like a boy, but he forbade me to keep my hair short… You make no sense dad._

She washed herself so clean that every spec of dirt was gone and took advantage of the laundry machines that Zebero had and put her clothes in. She stole—or as she would prefer, _borrowed_ —some clothing from Kurapika. They were a bit big on her, but Leorio's would be enormous on her, and she wouldn't want to wear his clothing. Gon's clothes would make her look like a prostitute. Most likely, because his shirt would be too small on her that it would show her waist and naval, she almost shivered. It would be terrible.

 _Especially_ the shorts. _Does he even notice how short they are on him?_

She put her weights back on and walked down the stairs being careful no one saw her. She had carefully watched Zeno to see how he walked and ran. She took his technique and applied it to her normal movement. She made no sound now when walking or running, well, most of the time. If she didn't actively try to do it, it wouldn't work.

She went to the kitchen and made some lunch; a tray of various sandwiches and a cold soup to dip them in. She set them on the table and waited for her prey to waltz in.

"Ne, when do you thing Mirage will be back?" Gon asked with excitement.

"She should be back any day now." Kurapika stated. "She did say she would be back in two months."

"Unless that Zeno guy kidnapped her." Leorio said jokingly.

"Ehh! Leorio that's not funny!" Gon shouted, it wasn't something to joke about.

"You did go too far." Kurapika agreed.

"Sorry, sorry." He amended with a sheepish look.

When they got to the dining room the three eyed the table. The food there didn't look like anything Zebero would make them. The man was adamant that a smaller meal after training was better than stuffing themselves. They would have a snack if they were still hungry afterwards—which wasn't as often as they would have thought, they were usually filled with the smaller dinner.

Breakfast is what he made a larger meal for.

"Zebero, did you make this?" Kurapika asked, he just wanted to make sure. The man _could_ be feeling generous.

"No. I wonder if Sequant did."

"Him? He wouldn't do that!" Leorio came in with disbelief.

Kagero was in the shadow of the hall way when she looked at Kurapika. _Damn, he's catching on to it! I'll have to act fast!_ She reappeared behind Leorio and Gon's bench. She was crouched behind it.

"I'm worried though. What _if_ Zeno _did_ decide to kidnap her?" Leorio brought it up again.

 _Here's my chance!_

She abruptly stood up quietly and grabbed Leorio and Gon's shoulders. "Zeno, kidnap me? Pfft."

Leorio screamed and Gon jumped to his feet.

"M–Mirage!"

"Ah mou! Don't scare us like that!" Gon yelled, actually being frustrated and slightly angry.

By this time Kageoro on the verge of falling over from laughter. She was laughing so hard she wasn't making a sound and was clutching her stomach bent over. It's the type of laughter that if you laughed hard enough you can feel abs growing.

"Hah…Well now that I've pranked you. Let's eat!"

"Wait you made this?"

"Yea, I have been here for a while. I put my other clothing in the wash, took a bath, made lunch, and waited to surprise you guys."

"Why not just come straight to us?" Kurapika asked.

"Well, firstly that wouldn't be any fun. Secondly, you guys would want to go straight to the gate as soon as I got back."

"Geh, she read us like a book…" Leorio murmured.

She sat down and grabbed a sandwich, "Anyways, how did you know about Zeno?"

This led to them explaining that she heard her yelling on the mountain about a week after she left to train.

"You guys heard that?" She laughed. "... And yea, I met Zeno. He's quiet but nice, though I can't agree with their way of making a living." She drank some water. "It took about a month to convince him to spar with me. In the end he would surprise attack me a few times a day for almost every day. I told him about me leaving and getting Killua back. He didn't really seem to care."

"So you did meet Zeno-sama. I'm surprised he didn't take you as a threat."

"Oh no, he did at first," this got Leorio to flinch, "but I talked to him and convinced that I wasn't one. Saying that I was Killua's friend and I opened the gate."

"So he's a nice guy?" Gon tilted his head.

"Yea. I said that before."

They finished their food while talking.

"Now then." Zebero came in after finishing his drink. "I suppose it's time to try to open the gate."

"Un!"

"W-Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. Wait…" Kagero said really fast. "I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we should rest before doing that. I've been sleeping in the woods on the cold hard ground, and I _really_ feel like sleeping in a nice soft bed.

"Ehh." Gon complained.

"We should just do it now. I know we could open the door! Why not get it done sooner than later!" Leorio lashed out.

"Leorio…" Kagero deadpanned. "Don't being so hasty! You don't know who you'll run in to over there! It's best we rest before going."

"Mirage's right. It's the right decision. We could be walking into a trap."

Leorio paled and Gon gulped.

The atmosphere was dead serious. "Why don't we play a game?"

"A game?" Gon perked up.

"Yes, how about, two truths and a lie!" Kagero offered.

"Ohh! Sounds fun!"

• • • • • •

They ended up playing that through till dinner. Kagero dominated with her acting skills—it was handy for bluffing—then Kurapika and Leorio. Gon had fun… but sucked. He just couldn't tell a lie! Such an honest boy!

They ended up playing poker after dinner and went to sleep soon after Kurapika wiped everyone clear of their pride in poker…or any card game in general.

The next morning they got up bright and early, having a hearty breakfast, and set out around noon. Zebero led them out back through the gate and couldn't help but chuckle at the shining eyes of the young boys in front of him. _They're so earnest_.

"You guys can go first, I have to stretch." Kagero offered.

"Thanks," Kurapika was stretching too.

"Why don't you try removing those vests today?"

"Oh? Music to my ears!" Leorio waltzed up with Kurapika winding his arm up. "Yeah!"

"Let's do this! Kurapika! Leorio!"

"Yeah!" The two chorused and got into formation at the door. "Gon, your arm's still healing so let us do this alright."

Gon pouted but sat down by Kagero. "It's alright Gon." She pat his head.

On a silent cue Leorio and Kurpika pushed. They were trying their hardest to open the gate but it wouldn't budge. With another spurt the door started to open slightly but it wouldn't go further than it was at. They were struggling to even keep it at the same place they got it to, the weight of the door pushing them back.

"Why don't you join them Gon? I'm sure you're healed now." Gon nodded happily at Kagero.

"Wait Gon! Your arm's healed?"

"Yea!"

"At the count of three!" Kagero yelled.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

With Gon pushing the door it started to open more.

Sequant stared with an impressed look on his face, he was so sure that they wouldn't be able to open it.

"Uuwaaah! So close!" Kagero cheered. "Annnnd… It's open!" She ran up to Gon who fell in between the doors and helped him up while Leorio cheered. "Now, it's my turn!" Kagero smiled evilly. The others sweat dropped.

She walked up to the door and threw her weights off. They made a larger crater than before. She snuck to the cabin in the middle of the night to increase her weights. The others paled.

"Here—I— _Go_!" She pushed it as hard as she could and opened the third gate much easier than last time.

Sequant and Zebero stared wide eyes. The trio's expressions were more or less the same.

"Heh, training pays off!"

"How could such a little gir–" Sequant cut himself off before he got killed.

"Thought so," and she, "hmphed."

Gon was running around her basking in all her glory.

They went back to the cabin to grab their stuff and bade goodbye to Zebero and Sequant, though Kagero didn't really care about the former, never did.

"Go down the mountain path, the mansion should be somewhere up there. I'm ashamed to say this, but even though I've worked here for twenty years, I've never been up the mountain. Sorry that I couldn't be of any help."

"No, that isn't true. You've both been a huge help." Gon bowed.

"He's right. We wouldn't have gotten through without your training." Kagero reassured him.

"We could have just used you." Leorio mumbled.

Kagero deadpanned at him. "You would take advantage of a girl?" She teased.

"Not in _that_ way!" He yelled.

"What _ever_ do you mean? _That_ way? Which way would you take advantage of one?" Leorio's face was getting redder in rage and embarrassment.

Kurapika sighed.

Leorio sighed, turning away from the source of anger and growled in annoyance. Kagero just smiled innocently, _too_ innocently.

"Anyways, Thanks for the help!" Kagero bowed lightly.

"Goodbye!" Gon yelled as he was running to catch up to Leorio, Kurapika and Kagero.

"Those kids are really something."

• • • • • •

They entered a clearing with a fence, it wasn't paved, but the ground was smooth and no grass was growing. _There have been a lot of people through here_. Kagero looked up and saw that someone was guarding it.

 _A butler…_ Kagero thought narrowing her eyes.

"Leave. You're trespassing on private property. I cannot allow you to pass without permission."

"We called ahead, and we came through the Testing Gate." Gon stepped forward.

"The butlers did not give you permission to enter."

"Then what do we need to do to get permission?" Gon exclaimed. "I said I was Killua's friend but they wouldn't put him on."

"I wouldn't know," she looked like she wanted to shrug, "because no one has ever received permission."

"Then we'll have to trespass!" Gon went into his angry chibi mode—which was closer to a pout than anger.

"I suppose so."

"Hmm." Kagero got their attention. "What if I know a family member?" The girl stared at Kagero. "I know Zeno."

"Did he give you permission?"

"No, but he didn't seem to care."

"In any case, this is where I draw the line." She used the head of her staff to draw a line. "If you take one step beyond this line, I'll remove you by force."

Gon stopped Leorio and Kurapika from charging her. He started walking forward.

"Gon, let me do this."

"No." He said straight out ignoring her.

"You'll get hurt."

"I don't care. I just want to see Killua."

"Alright," she scratched her head and sighed, "but I'm not going to take responsibility for you getting hurt. Though I _will_ intervene if you go too far."

Gon nodded and calmly walked over. The moment he stepped over the line he got sent flying by a hit to the face. Kagero ran to catch him.

"Gon!" Leorio yelled. "Damn it!" Leorio and Kurapika pulled out their weapons.

"Leorio! Kurapika! Don't interfere. Let me handle this. We don't intend to fight you. We just want to see Killua."

"It doesn't matter what your motives are. I'm simply following my orders."

Gon continued trying to walk past while Kagero caught him whenever he was sent flying. She felt the hairs on her neck raise. Someone was watching them.

 _Is it Zeno? No it's not… One of Killua's sibling's maybe._ She looked to a tree and saw a pair of eyes.

Gon continued until the sun started to set. Kagero had zoned out into the rhythm on waiting and catching Gon. The girl was looking uncomfortable. Gon kept challenging her, but she didn't want him to continue. It was like how she felt whenever she saw Killua harmed from his training. She frowned and hit Gon again.

"Stop it. Stay away!" Gon continued. She had no choice to deny his entrance again. Gon was hit but, wasn't sent tumbling. "Cut it out! Don't you realize how futile this is?! Why don't you stop him! Aren't you his friends?"

Leorio and Kurapika's faces were dead serious, showing no emotion. Kagero looked at her, eyes glowing from under her hood. She wanted to interfere, she was angry and irritated, her patience wearing thin. She bit the inside of her lip. Gon wouldn't like her interfering. He was trying to make a point.

The girl wavered at the determined look Gon had.

"What's the problem? I'm just here to see my friend. I'm just here to see Killua!" Gon slowly made his way forward. "Why do I have to do this?!" He yelled, bringing his fist back to punch the pillar beside the fence.

It shattered, and pieces of stone went flying.

The girl was frozen and she looked at his injured fist.

"Hey," the girl jolted at Gon's words. "I crossed the line. Aren't you supposed to hit me?" Gon looked straight into her eyes. "You're different from Mike. You may try to hide your feelings, but you have a heart."

Gon kept talking about how her eyes softened when he mentioned Killua.

Kagero noticed another presence alongside the one she found earlier. It seemed stronger… _Is it an older sibling or a parent…_

"Please…" She muttered with tears forming in her eyes. There was a small surge of power in the bush as "Help Killua-sa—"

She bolted to the butler's side and blocked something like a bullet. But it exploded and Kagero winced. A second one was sent right after and Kagero hadn't recovered from the flash and it hit the girl. Kagero glared towards the source.

"Honestly…" Gon looked towards where the voice was coming from. "What was that servant babbling about? She made it sound like we're being mean to Killua." The lady had a western dress on with a hat. She also had bandages around her face with a weird contraption over her eyes with a red dot in the middle.

Leorio ran to the girl's side.

"A worthless apprentice has the nerve to insult us!"

"You must be Killua's mother." Kagero brought the attention to herself. "He did tell us how he stabbed his mother in the face and his sibling in the side." The lady certainly had the bandages on her face from being stabbed.

"For him to do that, don't you think he's sick of killing people?" Kagero could feel anger emitting from Killua's mother, but it was quelled with an eerie mood swing.

She stepped forward. "You must be Kagero and Gon. I heard about you two from Illumi." She looked to Kagero. "Killua knows that you're here. I have a message for you from Kill. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate it. But I can't see you right now. Sorry."

"Forgive me for not introducing myself. I am Killua's mother, as you mentioned." Her red eye glanced at Kagero. "This is Kalluto."

"Why can't Killua come see us?"

"He must be being tortured right now." "Because he's in solitary confinement" Kagero and Killua's mother said at relatively the same time. She ignored Kagero.

"Kill returned because he regretted his actions. And he voluntarily entered solitary confinement. So we do not know when he will leave…" Her eye flickered, and she went berserk. "What? Father! What are you doing?! Don't do anything hasty! He's finally returned!" Her voice went higher and higher pitched as she screamed. "Oh, why must Father be this way?"

"Father?" Kagero murmured, "Oh must be Zeno."

She suddenly calmed down, "Something has come up. So I bid you farewell," and she ran off.

"Wait a minute," She stopped and turned around at Gon's words, "We'll be staying in town for a while. Please let Killua know."

"Very well. I shall tell him. Goodbye."

Kaluto stayed behind for a moment, "Who are you?"

"Killua's friends." Gon and Kagero said in sync.

"Friends…."

"Yea! They're great!" Kagero exclaimed.

"Kalluto-chan! What are you doing? Come over here!"

"Yes, Mother." She ran off.

"Wait, Kalluto- _chan_? He's a boy!"

"EHH!" Leorio yelled with Gon.

Once he calmed down Leorio spoke up. "I probably shouldn't say it, but these people creep me out…And I bet they were lying about Killua's saying that he can't see us. We should tail them."

"We can't go back yet. Leorio's right, but he is most likely being tortured right now."

"Don't say that!"

"But if we do that, she'll take the blame." Everyone looked to the unconscious butler.

I will take you to the butler's office." The girl woke up. "There is a phone that connects to the mansion. If Zeno-sama is the one who answers…"

"Zeno-sama? Isn't that who you met Mirage?"

"Ah, he was nice. He probably spoils Killua. Yea, he's his grandfather." She snickered at the thought.

• • • • • •

"Kill. I heard that you've made some friends?" Killua's father Silva asked.

"Yeah."

"What sort of people are they?"

"What sort of…? They're people I enjoy being with."

"I see…How was the Exam?"

"It was easy."

"Kil, come over here."

"Eh?"

" I want you to tell me more. What did you do during the Exam? Who did you meet? How did you feel? You can tell me anything…"

"Okay."

…

"And guess what Gon said next… He didn't want his legs cut off, but he didn't want to surrender, either!"

Silva laughed.

"He's so self-centered."

"Sounds like an interesting boy."

"Ah, then there's Kagero. At the beginning of the exam she was dressed as a boy and we didn't find out that she was a girl till the end of the exam! She fooled us all…" Killua sighed. " She acted all cool and quiet, but when it came to her fight she used acting to play mind games with her opponent. I actually believed it!" He laughed slightly with his father. "Then she kicked him out of the room and turned the lights off and ambushed him. Then her wig fell off! The examiners faces were priceless!... Then she won by-

Kil." His father interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Do you want to see your friends?" Killua looked down. "You don't need to hold back. Tell me the truth. Thinking back, we've never had a father-son chat before. I was raised by my parents to be an assassin. And I raised you the same way. You and I are different. I didn't realize that until you left home." HE put his hand on Killua's head. "You are my son. But you are your own person. Live as you please. If you get tired, you can come home."

"I'll ask you one more time. Do you want to see your friends?"

Killua nodded. "Uh-huh."

"I understand. You're free now. But…" Silva bit his thumb until there was a bead of blood on it. "Promise me one thing. Never betray your friends. Understand?"

Killua nodded with determination and bit his thumb. "I promise. I'll never betray them." He connected it to his fathers as a blood promise. "Never."

• • • • • •

Meanwhile, Kagero and the others were walking to the butler's office.

"Why can't we run there?"

"Are you kidding? There's an injured person!"

"Che."

• • • • • •

 **Hey guys! A Long awaited chapter huh? I edited the grammar heavily and I hope you guys could notice the difference!**

… **though there's something important that I want to get your opinions on. Kagero is super OP isn't she? So, once again, I would like to rewrite this. Actually rewrite this story I want to change some key things. So far I've just added things in here and there and upped the quality of writing, but now I seriously want to change the story. The way it's written would be the same—roughly—with the comedy. But the plot… I've even lost sight of what I was going to do. I have a vague idea, but the way it's written confuses even me. I'd keep most events in, changing key facts and things. The interactions between characters would also stay about the same.**

 **I would upload this under a new title. There would be no world transfer—which was grade seven/eight me trying to be creative, I'm in** _ **college**_ **now time sure flies, and now I just think it's gone bust—but they'd already be in the HXH world.**

 **Kagero's character would stay roughly the same, but I would add more and different background to her and her family. I'd like to make the characters—I think just Gon Killua and Kagero—a bit older though, like a year or two just so I could get away with some things I have planned now. There'll be some darker themes in the story, addressing death and things in more depth.**

 **There would be a key difference with Kagero though. She won't be a she** _ **or**_ **a he for that matter. I'll be explaining more in the rewrite.**

 **I'll post another chapter of this with an author's note about the rewrite's new title and discontinue this version.**

 **It would be really, r** _ **eally**_ **helpful to hear what you guys have to say about this. Feel free to PM me or review. Anything's appreciated.**

 **Jazeoth out.**


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